Last week, Jared Kushner emerged as a public-facing figure in the White House response to the coronavirus pandemic—and quickly established himself as a punching bag, thanks to his comments about the supply of ventilators available to each state.
“The notion of the federal stockpile was, it's supposed to be our stockpile. It's not supposed to be states' stockpiles that they then use,” Kushner said on Wednesday. He later added, “Some governors you speak to or senators, and they don't know what's in their state.”
His words inspired a New York Times opinion piece called “Jared Kushner Is Going to Get Us All Killed”—though the headline was later changed to the less inflammatory “Putting Jared Kushner In Charge Is Utter Madness.”
Recapping Kushner's week in the heart of the news cycle—and, in particular, his comments about the federal stockpile—Last Week Tonight host John Oliver was even blunter in his assessment Sunday night.
“Wait, 'our' stockpile? It’s not your stockpile. It’s a national stockpile for use by the United States, you fucking moron,” said Oliver, who had previously referred to Kushner as looking like an “alt-right Pinocchio.” He then offered the embattled advisor a geography lesson. “And here’s the interesting thing about the United States: it’s almost entirely made of states. There’s states everywhere! I’d say more than 40 of them, Jared! And some parts of them badly need supplies right now—like the city that you used to live in, and which I pray you never show your polished fucking face again,” Oliver said.
The supply of ventilators available to states during the pandemic has been a major issue throughout this health crisis. New York governor Andrew Cuomo estimated that his state could need more than 30,000 in total, a number that Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a key member of the White House coronavirus task force, had suggested as well. But as Vanity Fair reported last week, Kushner has apparently cast doubt on the overall need. “I have all this data about ICU capacity. I’m doing my own projections, and I’ve gotten a lot smarter about this. New York doesn’t need all the ventilators,” Kushner reportedly said during a White House meeting, according to a person present.
In the aftermath of Wednesday's press conference, the Department of Health and Human Services changed the language on the Strategic National Stockpile’s information page to more closely align with what Kushner said publicly. (A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told Politico that the edits were planned long before Kushner spoke.) Asked on Friday what Kushner meant when he said the federal supply was “our stockpile,” President Trump said, “You know what ‘our’ means: United States of America...our. Our. It means the United States of America.” Who's on first, again?
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