In interview with New York City businessmen on Friday, President-elect Donald Trump's son-in-law admitted he negotiated a deal with a large Midwestern television conglomerate guaranteeing them access to the candidate for interviews with the promise that they would not be accompanied by commentary.
According to Politico, Jared Kushner's comments came during an off-the-record meeting in the Morgan Stanley Cafeteria for the Partnership for New York City.
Kushner -- who is married to Trump daughter Ivanka --described the deal as "math," using the reach of Sinclair Broadcast Group to reach hundreds of thousands of voters in the battleground Midwest with Trump news packaged for their affiliates.
According to a spokesperson for Sinclair the package deal was offered to both candidates, with the Trump campaign jumping on it.
“Our promise was to give all candidates an opportunity to voice their position share their position with our viewers. Certainly we presented an opportunity so that Mr. Trump could clearly state his position on the key issues,” Scott Livingston, vice president of news at Sinclair said. “Our commitment to our viewers is to go beyond podium, beyond the rhetoric. We’re all about tracking the truth and telling the truth and that’s typically missing in most political coverage.”
“It was a standard package, but an extended package, extended story where you’d hear more directly from candidate on the issue instead of hearing all the spin and all the rhetoric,” Livingston said.
On Twitter, CNN's Andrew Kaczynski stated, "A Sinclair journalist relayed to me during campaign they were told by corporate what questions to ask Trump."
According to the Politico report, Kushner turned to Sinclair after being personally rebuffed by CNN head Jeff Zucker about changing the mix on the network's news panels despite the fact that CNN regularly featured Trump advocates Corey Lewandowski, Kayleigh McEnany and Jefftrey Lord among others.
Kaczynski's tweet below:
