MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan interrogated House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Monday on why the Democrats didn’t launch an investigation into former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner when they had the chance.
Filling in on MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes, Hasan said to Raskin:
Congressman, it’s clear the president’s son Hunter will be involved in any potential impeachment inquiry in some shape or form. Recently, you urged Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, the Republican, to investigate Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner for his foreign business dealings, especially with the Saudis.Why didn’t Democrats do more to investigate Kushner when you were in the majority? The Republicans have succeeded in turning Hunter into a bogeyman, even though Hunter never worked a day in the White House, yet Jared, who did, is doing just fine.
Raskin replied, “Well, remember, Jared’s essential crime against the constitutional republic came right after the Trump administration ended. It was, I think, the day after it ended that he created the corporation which he proceeded to endow with two billion dollars from the homicidal crown prince of Saudi Arabia, and then other sovereign wealth funds from Gulf monarchs.”
He continued:
So all of this is an ongoing story right now in the Biden administration, and of course, the Republicans are in control of the House just narrowly by four votes.
But even Chairman Comer has conceded that Jared Kushner crossed an ethical line, and so all we’re saying is, look, Jared Kushner was actually working in the White House. He was in the administration. Hunter Biden was never in the Biden administration.
Hasan interrupted, “I get that. I’m just wondering why you didn’t do this earlier. I’m just wondering, when you were in charge in ’21 and ’22, why you didn’t do more on this front?”
Raskin argued, “Well, you know, I think we’ve been doing everything we can to try to catch up with what we know, and what we’re trying to find out is exactly what did Saudi Arabia get out of this arrangement, and what is the nature of all the money that’s been pouring in?”
The congressman continued:
Now, we know that they covered up the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, the drawing and quartering by the paid assassins who were sent by, you know, the crown prince. We know that they were aligned with Saudi Arabia in the Yemen war, and they went there first — that was the first foreign trip that Trump took, so they got a lot out of it — and we were talking about all of that at the time. But look, we’re gonna do a complete report on foreign government emoluments that were pocketed by Donald Trump and
we’re still trying to torture out the information, which we’ve never gotten.
In March, former Trump senior counselor Kellyanne Conway claimed Kushner had “benefitted in the billions” from Trump’s presidency after being pressed about Kushner’s relationship with Saudi Arabia.
Watch above via MSNBC.