Reprinted with permission from AlterNet.
It reportedly took Jared Kushner three tries to correctly fill out his security clearance forms, proving a disturbing inability to follow the most basic directions. Now there’s new evidence that Kushner also managed to screw up his voter registration forms. The president’s adviser and senior nepotism beneficiary apparently identified himself as a woman on the form, because Kushner is easily confused by elemental questions.
According to a report in Wired Magazine, the voter registration form for Jared Corey Kushner held by the New York State Board of Elections lists Ivanka’s husband’s gender as “female.” The goof prompted Wired writer Ashley Feinberg to ask “Is Kushner a woman? Did he just accidentally fill out the form incorrectly? Is he the victim of a malicious voter impersonation scheme? Unfortunately, there’s absolutely no way to know for sure, because he has yet to provide Wired with a comment. But based on his recent history with paperwork, option two seems like a pretty safe bet.”
As Feinberg notes, this tendency to flub simple questions on standard forms is particularly troubling in Kushner’s case because he’s been tasked with some really complicated jobs. He’s in charge of brokering peace in the Middle East; aiding relations with China, Mexico and Canada; fixing the opioid crisis; modernizing the Department of Veterans’ Affairs; reforming the criminal justice system; and overhauling the entire U.S. government as head of the new White House Office of American Innovation. Couple his complete lack of experience in foreign or domestic political affairs with his demonstrated inability to check off the correct boxes on forms and the future looks catastrophic.
“Kushner can’t even fill out the most basic paperwork without screwing it up, so it’s a mystery why anyone thinks he’s somehow going to bring peace to the Middle East,” Brad Bainum, of the progressive research group American Bridge, told Wired. “Would anyone but the president’s son-in-law still have a West Wing job after repeated disclosure errors and a botched security clearance form?”
Back in July, the New York Times reported that Kushner had to correct numerous errors on his federal disclosure form, which was required for his security clearance. The fixes included adding more than 100 names of foreign contacts along with a previously unlisted meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, which he attended with Donald Trump Jr.
“If this were a normal political world, Jared Kushner wouldn’t have a job by the end of the day,” Senator Chris Murphy said at the time, per CNN. “He would at least have his security clearance revoked.”
Did we mention Kushner—along with Tiffany Trump, Steve Bannon, Steve Mnuchin and Sean Spicer—is registered to vote in more than one state?
Trump and right-wing media have repeatedly tried to reframe Kushner’s mistakes as the adorable growing pains of a plucky but dedicated “kid.” The mounting pile of errors and what appear to be straight-up lies suggest Kushner—and the Trump team of which he is a member—should be stripped of their responsibilities, stat.
[h/t Wired]
