On Thursday, CNN published a report claiming Jared Kushner's firm's investment in an Israeli company with involvement in Israel's military campaigns could be a conflict of interest. Kushner has called the report "deeply misleading," noting that only the indicting headline is visible to non-paid subscribers, not the full story. On Saturday morning's Table For Five on CNN, the debate over the report got heated between host Abby Phillip and former New York City Councilman Joe Borelli.
On Friday, Kushner posted on X arguing that CNN’s own reporting contradicts the headline, "How Jared Kushner’s firm’s investment in an Israeli company could be a major conflict of interest."
FoxNews.com reported in a piece linked above, on the CNN hit piece, "Buried behind a paywall, it acknowledges: ‘CNN found no indication that Kushner’s actions as a diplomat directly affected the investments reviewed.'"
So basically, there is no real there, there, but it didn't stop CNN from pushing a misleading headline and it didn't stop Phillip from diving right in on the Kushner "grift" spin.
PHILLIP: The alleged grift appears to be a family business. We've heard about how rich Donald Trump's sons are getting, which includes government contracts. And now a CNN investigation finds Jared Kushner's private company has the largest stake in an Israeli firm involved in Israel's military campaigns.
After describing the "conflict of interest" she turned to Kushner's denial, noting that he called the report "deeply misleading" and added that he said, "He has no role in deciding what that Israeli firm buys or sells, and that his company's investment predates both Trump's reelection and Kushner's return to public service."
Phillip soon turned to panelists Geraldo Rivera and former Biden deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh before Borelli weighed in and proceeded to rip the premise of the segment, and appeared to question Philip's honesty.
BORELLI: You're saying this is not supposed to be how it works, but I want to point out that this is probably not how media is supposed to work. So we're spending an entire segment debating the premise that Jared Kushner is corrupt, whereas the article that we're discussing right now, the operable line in it, is that CNN did not find that anything Jared Kushner did in his public role has anything to do with these stocks. This is a --
PHILLIP: Did I say that?
BORELLI: No. But this is the premise. This is the problem --
PHILLIP: No, no, no, it's actually not the premise. That's why --
BORELLI: Yes it is. The point of this article was to put Jared Kushner's name and the word "conflict" in a headline.
PHILLIP: Hold on, Joe. Don't put words in my mouth....Most government officials, all of them, actually, if you work in the government in any capacity, you cannot have that situation. You cannot have ownership in a company that is involved in the thing that you are working on.
Borelli continued to set the record straight, and Phillip didn't like it.
BORELLI: Just so the audience is clear. Jared Kushner owns a percentage of this company. This company owns --
PHILLIP: So, Joe, so, Joe, I'm just saying to you --
BORELLI: I think, I think you should be honest about what you're reporting on.
PHILLIP: Do you acknowledge that, regardless of whether there it is influencing him or it is not influencing him, it is a situation that is, A, unusual --
BORELLI: I'm not answering yes or no questions unless you let me explain the context.
PHILLIP: -- and B, it does not apply to anybody in the government, and C --
BORELLI: This is a broader -- this is a company. Jared Kushner owns an investment company. The investment company owns a percentage of an Israeli investment company, which owns $250 billion of assets, including thousands of companies that they own shares in.
Borelli would soon take a blatant shot at CNN.
BORELLI: This is why the President has serious objections to networks that he believes treat him unfairly. We have, we have, we have a premise that Jared Kushner is corrupt, whereas the article itself says that, hey, we have no evidence of Jared Kushner ever actually influencing any of the things were saying he is.
PHILLIP: Joe, Joe, again.
BORELLI: But we're going to put the headline that Jared is corrupt, put a picture of him, and put it online.
The segment continued. What we saw from CNN's free-headline-but-subscriber-only story on Kushner was beyond the pale. What viewers saw from Joe Borelli was someone brave and unafraid to tell it like it is. The question is, how soon will CNN have him back on?
