Jared Kushner: ‘My father-in-law is not an anti-Semite’

Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, defended the presumptive GOP presidential nominee amid accusations that he is anti-Semitic and racist — claims sparked by a tweet sent over the weekend.

“My father-in-law is not an anti-Semite,” Kushner wrote in an opinion piece in The New York Observer, which he owns. “It’s that simple, really. Donald Trump is not anti-Semitic and he’s not a racist.”

{mosads}Kushner, who is Jewish, wrote that the worst Trump’s opponents can say about him is that he has been “careless in retweeting imagery that can be interpreted as offensive.”

Trump came under fire over the weekend for sharing an image of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton over a bed of $100 bills, with the phrase “The most corrupt candidate ever!” inside a six-pointed star. He later deleted the tweet and shared an image that replaced the star with a circle.

A writer at the Observer wrote an open letter Tuesday urging Kushner to rebuke Trump’s controversial anti-Clinton tweet and asking him how he can condone such behavior.

Kushner said in his op-ed response that critics are too quick to call Trump racist over minor incidents.

“In my opinion, accusations like ‘racist’ and ‘anti-Semite’ are being thrown around with a carelessness that risks rendering these words meaningless,” he said.

“If even the slightest infraction against what the speech police have deemed correct speech is instantly shouted down with taunts of ‘racist’ then what is left to condemn the actual racists? What do we call the people who won’t hire minorities or beat others up for their religion?”

Kushner, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, detailed his grandparents’ experience and how much of his grandmother’s family had been killed in the Holocaust. 

“I go into these details, which I have never discussed, because it’s important to me that people understand where I’m coming from when I report that I know the difference between actual, dangerous intolerance versus these labels that get tossed around in an effort to score political points,” he said.

He said the difference between him and the media who dismiss Trump is simple: “I know him and they don’t.”

He called Trump an “incredibly loving and tolerant person.” Trump has embraced people of all racial and religious backgrounds, he said.

“This caricature that some want to paint as someone who has ‘allowed’ or encouraged intolerance just doesn’t reflect the Donald Trump I know,” he wrote.

Kushner said the country faces serious challenges, referencing the economy, terrorism and trade deficits.

“Intolerance should be added to that list. I’m confident that my father in law, with his outstanding record of real results, will be successful tackling these challenges,” he said. “That’s why I support him.”