Trump's son-in-law defends the Donald in his own newspaper
A journalist for the New York Observer has suddenly become one of the most visible and effective critics of Donald Trump -- as well as his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Observer entertainment writer Dana Schwartz took Kushner to task on Wednesday over his unwillingness to confront the anti-Semitism that has been whipped up by the Trump campaign.
What, in another election and another media cycle, might have just been a tweetstorm in a teapot, has recently served to highlight the inexperience and continued foibles of the Trump campaign.
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Kushner's piece -- published in the New York Observer, which he owns -- was actually a response to an earlier essay by Schwartz, also published in the Observer. Schwartz's piece called out Kushner over a Trump campaign tweet criticizing Hillary Clinton that was widely seen as anti-Semitic, and which the campaign has stood by, accusing the media of deliberately misreading the message's intent.
On July 2, Donald Trump sent out a now-infamous tweet that included an image of Hillary Clinton over a pile of money alongside a six-pointed star that read "Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!"
The tweet was quickly attacked for its anti-Semitic overtones. Mic legitimized those critiques when it found the image had originated on white supremacist message boards.
Trump and his campaign have denied those connections, arguing (among other things) that the star is meant to be a sheriff's badge.
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Plenty of articles have been written on the subject, but none resonated like the one Schwartz published on Tuesday. Schwartz is an entertainment writer at the New York Observer, a paper particularly notable in this case because it is owned by Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Schwartz detailed the numerous issues with the anti-Semitism of Trump's tweet -- noting that it hurt her on a personal level. Schwartz is Jewish, as is Kushner.
"And now, Mr. Kushner, I ask you: What are you going to do about this? Look at those tweets I got again, the ones calling me out for my Jewish last name, insulting my nose, evoking the holocaust, and tell me I’m being too sensitive," Schwartz wrote.
Kushner responded on Wednesday in a piece that primarily defended Trump. He did, however, seem to acknowledge that some mistake had been made.
"If my father in law’s fast-moving team was careless in choosing an image to retweet, well part of the reason it’s so shocking is that it’s the actual candidate communicating with the American public rather than the armies of handlers who poll-test ordinary candidates’ every move," Kushner wrote.
It didn't take long for Schwartz to respond. On Twitter, she dissected many of the points Kushner made.
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Kushner has owned the Observer since 2006 when he bought the paper at the age of 25. He is the son of a wealthy New York real estate developer.
He married Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka, in 2009.
Plenty of people pushed back on Kushner's article, including what appeared to be his own cousin.
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Topics Donald Trump Elections
Jason Abbruzzese is a Business Reporter at Mashable. He covers the media and telecom industries with a particular focus on how the Internet is changing these markets and impacting consumers. Prior to working at Mashable, Jason served as Markets Reporter and Web Producer at the Financial Times. Jason holds a B.S. in Journalism from Boston University and an M.A. in International Affairs from Australian National University.
