Fmr. House Intel Chair: ‘Hallelujah’ Kushner Communicated with Russians

Former Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) said that while President Donald Trump was abroad strengthening international relationships and reasserting American leadership, the mainstream media were hard at work “trashing” Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner.

“[The media are] not satisfied with Trump,” Hoekstra said Tuesday on “The Laura Ingraham Show.” The former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said the press won’t rest until the president, Kushner, and even Vice President Mike Pence are discredited.

“I would expect that the Trump administration would be talking to the Chinese, to the Russians, to all of these people as they get prepared to govern.”

“They want to go after them all, and they want to totally distract them on their agenda until they get them out,” Hoekstra said.

“[The media] spent four days trashing Kushner,” he said referencing anonymously sourced reports suggesting the White House senior adviser asked Russian officials for a secure line of communication during the transition.

“For what? That we know the Russians meddle in elections? Guess what folks, America meddles in elections. We do it through our intelligence community. It’s fascinating stuff but, you know, Kushner doing a back channel? Hallelujah. I would expect that the Trump administration would be talking to the Chinese, to the Russians, to all of these people as they get prepared to govern.”

When he talks to Michigan residents, Hoekstra noted that the people “just kind of shake their heads” at what is going on in Washington and the hyperbolic reports spewed by the media.

“What they’re concerned about is, they’re concerned about jobs, they’re concerned about taxes,” Hoekstra said, “And right now, I don’t see a lot of people moving away from Trump. I think they look at it and say, ‘This guy is trying to change Washington, and this is the elites in Washington … the media elites trying to trash this guy. And we want him to do the agenda.'”

If Congress cannot move forward on Trump’s ambitious economic agenda and his tax-reform plan, Hoekstra recommended that Trump refuse to let them go on vacation in August.

“I hope that when they get to August, if tax reform is not done, that the president just calls them out and says, ‘You need to stay in town. This needs to happen. This needs to get done,'” Hoekstra said.

The former Michigan congressman also said it is “great news” German Chancellor Angela Merkel realized Europe should be more responsible for its own defense.

Hoekstra pointed to comments a seemingly disgruntled Merkel made over the weekend, when she bemoaned that Europe “must take our destiny into our own hands” and “fight for our own future and our fate ourselves as Europeans.” Merkel’s comments came after President Donald Trump called on NATO leaders last week to meet their 2 percent of GDP defense-spending commitment to the alliance.

“Angela Merkel being upset on Sunday and over the weekend and on Monday is kind of like, that’s ok. Great news!” Hoekstra said. “Americans should welcome this. We want a strong Europe. We want a strong Europe that spends on defense and helps us defeat ISIS, that confronts Russia and does all of these things. It’s like, hallelujah.”

Trump made waves when he confronted European leaders for skimping on the international burden and placing an unfair share of the cost on U.S. taxpayers’ shoulders.

“[Trump] went to the Middle East and he reached out to the Saudis and talked to the 50 Muslim heads of states and said, ‘We need your help and you need to lead the fight against ISIS and to change this radical ideology and reform your religion,'” Hoekstra noted.

“And then he went to Europe and held Europe accountable, and basically said — he didn’t say we’re not there. He just said, ‘We’re going to be here, but we need partners. And partners means that you have to carry your fair share of the cost. We’re not going to carry all the cost,'” Hoekstra added. “And that’s great to say!”

[lz_related_box id=”802820″]

“And for Merkel to actually come back and say, ‘Hey Europe, it’s our responsibility,’ it’s like — and it hasn’t been for the last 50 years?” Hoesktra added. “Is this a new revelation?”

Hoekstra also praised Trump for moving toward the likely decision of withdrawing the U.S. from the Obama-era 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, which would place a huge burden on American workers and economic revitalization.

“Obama didn’t have support for this agreement. If he had support for this agreement … he would have gotten 51 votes to pass it as a treaty, and America would have been bound by the treaty,” Hoekstra said. “So hey, Angela Merkel — if you want to sign a deal with a president that has a year left in his administration, that’s fine. But for you to believe that we’re going to have an election and that elections don’t have consequences is naïve.”