Homeland security secretary defends Kushner’s reported talks with Russia
WASHINGTON — John Kelly, President Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary, on Sunday defended a reported effort by Jared Kushner, the president’s embattled son-in-law and key adviser, to establish a secret channel with Russia during the transition, calling it “a good thing.”
“Any information flow into the government and then considered by the government, I won’t criticize that,” Kelly said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.” “All of these lines of communication are a positive thing, in my opinion.”
Kelly’s remarks came amid news that Kushner was a focus of investigations into possible collusion between Russia and Trump’s associates during the campaign and transition, a development that has consumed an already-beleaguered White House.
Trump back on Twitter
The president, home after a nine-day trip overseas, quickly turned his Twitter account back into a political weapon Sunday, assailing what he called the “fabricated lies made up by the #FakeNews media.”
Trump’s administration has been straining to contain the fallout from news reports that Kushner spoke in December with Russia’s ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, about establishing a secret channel to Moscow to discuss the war in Syria and other matters.
In television interviews Sunday, Kelly defended Kushner’s conduct and his character generally.
“He’s a great guy, decent guy. His No. 1 interest, really, is the nation,” Kelly said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “So, you know, there’s a lot of different ways to communicate, back channel, publicly with other countries. I don’t see any big issue here relative to Jared.”
Kelly also echoed Trump’s aggressive posture against leaks, calling U.S. officials’ disclosure of information about the bombing in Manchester, England, “darn close to treason.”
Soon, Trump had fired off a message of his own on the subject.
“British Prime Minister May was very angry that the info the U.K. gave to U.S. about Manchester was leaked,” he wrote on Twitter. “Gave me full details!”
It was a familiar morning for Trump on his favored medium — and for a nation that had, for a little more than a week, gone without the president’s stream-of-consciousness missives.
Trump back on Twitter
The president had largely avoided provocative Twitter posts during his journey through the Middle East and Europe, but he quickly returned to form after arriving at the White House late Saturday, pushing back Sunday morning against the flurry of news reports about Kushner.
“Whenever you see the words ‘sources say’ in the fake news media, and they don’t mention names,” Trump wrote, “it is very possible that those sources don’t exist but are made up by fake news writers. #Fake-News is the enemy!”
The president woke up to find headlines and talk shows focused on the latest turns in inquiries that he had been able to put aside for much of his trip. The freshest developments brought the matter into his own family.
News articles also focused on efforts by administration aides to develop a damage control plan to handle the controversies. That plan would potentially seek to wall off questions involving the investigations from day-to-day governing by creating a separate war room in the White House, assembling a high-powered legal team outside the White House and shaking up the president’s communications team.
One consensus among administration lawyers and private lawyers consulted by the White House was that Trump needed to restrain himself on Twitter, rather than create new problems with impulsive or unfiltered messages.