The New York Times aggregated an interview with President Donald Trump’s senior advisor Jared Kushner from TIME Wednesday, leaving out a key piece of information that led to the spread of misinformation.
Kushner, who is also Trump’s son-in-law, spoke to TIME in an article published May 12 about the novel coronavirus and the president’s efforts to get Americans back to work. The NYT article quoted Kushner as saying he couldn’t “commit one way or the other” about postponing the 2020 election because of the novel coronavirus. (RELATED: Trump Says He’ll Announce New Guidelines Thursday For Reopening The Country)
“I’m not sure I can commit one way or the other, but right now that’s the plan,” Kushner said according to TIME, which also added that “Kushner said that isn’t his decision.” The NYT article did not mention the latter, which noted that Kushner said postponing the election wasn’t actually his decision.
“Hopefully by the time we get to September, October, November, we’ve done enough work with testing and with all the different things we’re trying to do to prevent a future outbreak of the magnitude that would make us shut down again,” Kushner also said, I really believe that once America opens up, it’ll be very hard for America to ever lock down again.”
Other takes regarding Kushner’s comments failed to include this note, too.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for example, tweeted that she “can’t believe” she has “to write this sentence, but the president’s son-in-law doesn’t get to decide when the election is.” Clinton included the NYT’s piece in her tweet, which did not note that TIME reported Kushner saying exactly that.
From the Kushner interview with Time (which this aggregated NYT piece didn’t include & which every hot take doesn’t mention): “When asked if there was a chance the presidential election could be postponed past November 3 due to the pandemic, Kushner said that isn’t his decision.” https://t.co/ES3Q02NtUt
— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) May 13, 2020
“The opinion of a White House staff member has no bearing on when the election is held,” NYT White House correspondent Annie Karni tweeted.
Today Jared Kushner acted like the November election date could be moved, because he has no idea what he’s talking about.
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) May 13, 2020
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig echoed the same takes, tweeting that “Jared freakin’ Kushner sure as hell can’t do any of this so it means nothing if he ‘can commit one way or the other.'”
Ben Shapiro pointed out the misinformation Wednesday, noting that “Kushner didn’t say he would decide when the election occurs.”
Kushner was forced to clarify his comments Wednesday after backlash on social media. Kushner noted that “he was unaware of and not involved in any ‘discussions’ about changing the date of the 2020 election,” according to the Washington Post.
The NYT did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller.