Journalist Bob Woodward is sharing new audio revealing senior advisor to the president Jared Kushner recalling White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany saying to President Donald Trump that he may be better off politically amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In the audio obtained by CNN, Kushner is heard telling Woodward on May 8, “Look, I really do believe that he’s passed the competency test on the execution.”
He continued in recalling a conversation between Trump and McEnany in the Oval Office:
“I think that…Kayleigh actually said a great thing to him in the Oval Office. You know, he said, ‘Look, politically, do you think we were better off the other way, where things were humming or this way?’ And she said, ‘You know, in some ways, it’s better this way, because before people took for granted how great you were with the economy.'”
In response, CNN’s Anderson Cooper said, “I mean, wow,” noting that at that point of Kushner’s remarks more than 77,000 Americans had died from COVID-19.
Woodward then added, “That’s a Shakespearean tragedy unto itself. The idea that you would say let’s embrace disaster and then you can come back from that and people will appreciate you in some way they would not if we had not had this disaster.”
Watch the video below:
"A Shakespearean tragedy unto itself," says Bob Woodward, of Jared Kushner recounting an Oval Office conversation in which he said Kayleigh McEnany said Pres. Trump might be better off politically because of Covid-19.
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) October 29, 2020
"I said 'is that possible?'" said an astonished Woodward. pic.twitter.com/6PudJZ26Jr
“I said, ‘Is that possible? Would the president ask that kind of question?'” Woodward said of Trump’s question to McEnany, later adding, “The answer is yes.”
