The Lincoln Project took aim at senior White House adviser Jared Kushner in its latest Twitter video as the group continues its efforts to derail President Donald Trump's re-election efforts.
The clip, captioned "Evil is real. And it lives in Jared Kushner," was posted on the same day that the Republican National Convention (RNC) is set to start in North Carolina.
"Evil is real. We ignore it when it seems educated, polite, superficially charming, even sophisticated. We trivialize it, ignore it, and when we do it grows," the narrator says as the video begins.
Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, is criticized for his role in the White House planning meetings back in March on the response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Evil is real. And it lives in Jared Kushner. pic.twitter.com/TZQctWyVa1
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) August 24, 2020
"Trump's COVID team led by Jared Kushner decided to ignore testing in states with Democratic governors. Evil was in that room," the narrator says.
The ad highlights the number of deaths from the virus so far in the U.S., which has reached more than 177,000, and compares it to the toll of dead Americans in the Pearl Harbor attack, 9/11, the Vietnam War, and World War One.
The narrator says the testing strategies that emerged from those early meetings were "deliberate, cold, political, pre-meditated," and that while some may have called the White House's planning "incompetent," it urges people to "call it what it is: Evil."
The attack on Kushner, who is married to the president's eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, comes as the Lincoln Project loses from its board the conservative lawyer George Conway, one of its most prominent founding members.
Conway, a former Republican who has clashed repeatedly with Trump, announced on Twitter that he would withdraw from the group and take a hiatus from the social media platform to devote more time to family matters.
It was a similar message to that given by his wife, Kellyanne Conway, who announced that she would leave the White House at the end of August. Conway is senior counselor to Trump, one of his closest, most trusted, and longest-serving advisers.
She is, however, still expected to speak at the RNC this week. The convention will also feature the president, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, among other high-profile speakers.
On Friday, the Lincoln Project, formed by several Republicans with the aim of preventing Trump's re-election, published a video calling on Ohio residents to vote out the president after he criticized Goodyear Tires, an Akron-headquartered company.
"Times in Ohio are getting tough. Donald Trump is making it worse; demanding a boycott to put Goodyear out of business," the narrator says.
"That's 3,300 union jobs. Jobs that sustain families all over Ohio. Why? His feelings got hurt," the narrator said in the group's previous clip.
The Lincoln Project has previously targeted Kushner, calling him the "Secretary of Failure" in a video from early August, which also focused on his role in the White House's coronavirus response.
Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
