John Kelly Defends Kushner, Ignoring The Elephant In The Room

Sec. Kelly calls back-channels "normal...and acceptable": "It's not a bad thing to have multiple communications lines to any government." pic.twitter.com/Gr5bWn5U8a
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) May 28, 2017

By Susie Madrak — May 28, 2017

The grownups are out this morning, trying to calm the uproar over the news that Jared Kushner tried to establish his own back channel with Russia.

"Hey, what's the big deal?" was the attitude of Homeland Security Sec. John Kelly when he appeared on This Week, and he really should (and probably does) know better. After all, back channels aren't typically set up to evade the U.S. government.

As explained by numerous others:

One thought re Kushner/Kislyak: It's not only that the Trump administration wanted a back channel to Russia. It's that the Trump family did.

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) May 27, 2017

If Hillary Clinton's son-in-law wanted secret back channel comms with the Russians, I and every other GOPer would be going full nuclear.

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) May 27, 2017

Reuters: Kushner may have sought back channel to arrange Russian loans in exchange for easing of sanctions. It's starting to come together.

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) May 28, 2017

Missing from back channel coverage: Trump folks were trying to organize it 2 months after intel agencies said Russia interfered in election

— Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) May 27, 2017

This was my question when I read the NYT accounts, which seem to take the "it was a backchannel because of Syria" explanation at face value https://t.co/JNKKiiPZUr

— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) May 27, 2017

"backchannel communications" has never, ever meant using Russian communications equipment to avoid FBI detection, as Kushner requested https://t.co/OCSqyvB7Uy

— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) May 27, 2017

This is an important point–what Kushner was attempting to set up wasn't so much a back channel as a covert channel with an adversary https://t.co/Fc4qXdJuJ4

— Adam Khan (@Khanoisseur) May 27, 2017

Dobrynin was the ambassador. RFK was a cabinet member. That's not a back channel but a front channel. https://t.co/dTTiaT9oli

— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) May 28, 2017

Excellent thread for when you hear, "Oh a backchannel to a foreign leader is, like, normal." Yeah. Maybe. But not here. At all. https://t.co/RklmIVwcwa

— Chaos Agent Garland (@ericgarland) May 27, 2017

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