Obama blasts Kushner for suggesting that Black Americans need to 'want' to be successful

Former President Barack Obama laced into Jared Kushner, the son-in-law and senior adviser of President Donald Trump, after Kushner invoked a racist trope by implying that the lack of racial equality in the U.S. is due in part to a lack of motivation among Black Americans.

Kushner made the comments during an interview on “Fox & Friends” on Monday morning during which he also referred to raising concerns about racial inequality as “complaining” and suggested that those who protested systemic racism over the summer were more interested in “virtue signaling” than solving those issues.

"The thing we've seen in the Black community, which is mostly Democrat,” Kushner argued, “is that President Trump's policies are the policies that can help people break out of the problems that they're complaining about, but he can't want them to be successful more than they want to be successful."

At a drive-in campaign rally in Orlando for former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday, Obama tore into Kushner and his father-in-law for their insistence that Trump is a better president for Black voters.

Throughout his reelection campaign, the president has sought to make inroads with Black voters in hopes that even a modest improvement in his margins could make a difference in a close race with Biden. Trump often highlights the Black unemployment rate under his administration, a figure that began a downward climb during Obama’s presidency and reached historic lows under Trump, but has been slower to rebound in the coronavirus-induced recession.

“He loves to talk about Black unemployment, look how low Black unemployment — well, you know what, unemployment was really high when I came in and we brought that unemployment low and it kept on going low,” Obama said Tuesday. “And he wants to take credit for it, says he's the best president for Black folks since Abe Lincoln. Man.”

“Now his advisers are out there saying, including his son-in-law, his son-in-law says, Black folks have to want to be successful, that's the problem,” he continued, sounding incredulous. “Who are these folks? What history books do they read?”

Obama paused for the crowd's cheers to die down, and a member of the audience yelled out that “they don’t read.”

“Don't read, is that what's going on?” the former president responded, before promising voters that Biden’s recovery plan would bring the Black unemployment rate in Florida back down.

Kushner’s comments immediately drew backlash, including from the Democratic National Committee, which blasted his “dismissive” attitude.

“We cannot afford another four years of a White House that does not take our voices seriously and tells us to be grateful for whatever scraps are leftover from the bargaining table,” spokesperson Brandon Gassaway said in a statement.

But his White House colleagues came to Kushner's defense, with press secretary Kayleigh McEnany calling the blowback the work of “internet trolls” taking Kushner out of context “as they try to distract from President Trump’s undeniable record of accomplishment for the black community.”

Trump aide Ja’ron Smith also supported Kushner, writing in a tweet that it had been an “honor to serve with the president’s son-in-law, “a man who has been a huge advocate for the issues that impact Black America....First Step Act, Opportunity Zones, Access to Capital, USMCA, and jobs in the Black community....I will always stand with you Brother!!!”