Jared Kushner, a real estate scion, says boycotting N.B.A. players have the ‘luxury’ to ‘take a night off from work.’

A boycott by N.B.A. players over the shooting of Jacob Blake by police in Kenosha, Wis., elicited a dismissive response from members of the Trump administration on Thursday — one that dramatically diverged from the expressions of solidarity from top Democrats.

Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and a senior adviser to the president, suggested during an appearance on the CNBC program “Squawk Box” that the players were not making a significant sacrifice by sitting out of playoff games.

“I think that the N.B.A. players are very fortunate that they have the financial position where they’re able to take a night off from work without having to have the consequences to themselves financially,” Mr. Kushner said. “So they have that luxury, which is great.”

Mr. Kushner’s comments hit a sour note on social media, with some sports figures and activists noting that Mr. Kushner was not self-made like the N.B.A. players to whom he had referred.

“It’s going to take all our institutions to stand up for our values,” Mr. Obama tweeted on Wednesday after the Milwaukee Bucks refused to leave their locker room for a playoff game.

Hillary Clinton tweeted on Thursday that the boycotts by N.B.A. and W.N.B.A. players were an example of the peaceful protests that Representative John Lewis, the civil rights icon who died last month, referred to as “good trouble.”

Mr. Kushner was not the only Trump administration official who faced criticism Thursday for comments on the N.B.A. boycott.

On CNN, Marc Short, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, called the protests “absurd” and “silly” and said that the N.B.A. and its players had looked the other way on human rights abuses in China.

SOURCE: https://www.w24news.com