The coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the country. Millions of Americans are out of work. Professional athletes are striking over racial injustice at the hands of police.
And yet, President Trump will offer a “very hopeful vision for America” in his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination Thursday night, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner said.
During a CNBC interview on Thursday morning, Kushner contrasted his father-in-law’s prepared remarks with what he called “a lot of complaints” from Democrats during their party’s convention last week.
“Tonight, what you’re going to hear from President Trump is a very hopeful vision for America,” Kushner told CNBC’s Joe Kernen during an interview Thursday morning. “He’s very proud of this country. He believes that this country has incredible room to grow coming out of this pandemic.”
The pandemic is far from over. But Kushner was not the first to describe the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed roughly 180,000 people in the United States, as a receding issue that the country has largely triumphed over.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow made similar claims in a pre-taped revisionist history lesson during the RNC’s second night by referring to the pandemic in the past tense.
While on Wednesday more than 1,200 people in the U.S. reportedly died from COVID-19, Kushner maintained on Thursday that through the pandemic “President Trump has had a steady hand.” He said that his father-in-law had “made a lot of the right decisions.”
Kushner added that the President’s acceptance speech, which he is expected to deliver from the White House’s South Lawn, would also address the seriousness of November’s election and explain how the wrong vote will have “serious consequences.”
Kushner’s comments come after Vice President Mike Pence closed his convention speech on Wednesday by promising that Trump would “make America great again… again.”
The slogan was a play on Trump’s 2016 message but a switch from an earlier 2020 campaign mantra to “keep America great” as the country slid into decline amid the pandemic.
Kushner, who lauded the President’s unconventional manner of governing the country and tendency to shirk “the Washington way” on Thursday, said that the President will make a “very, very strong case” for how he can build the country “to be stronger than it’s ever been before.”
