Jared Kushner said 'I don't give a f--- about the future of the Republican Party,' according to a new book
- Jared Kushner reportedly had a blowup with the chair of the Republican National Committee last year.
- A new book from the Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender details the pre-election exchange.
- Kushner floated taking over the RNC's entire online fundraising platform, Bender reportedly wrote.
Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump and an ex-White House adviser, got into "an intense argument" with Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel ahead of the 2020 election, a new book reportedly says.
"I don't give a f--- about the future of the Republican Party!'" Kushner reportedly told McDaniel in the lobby of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC. Fox News on Tuesday published excerpts from the book, "Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost," by the Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender, out next Tuesday.
The RNC had become closely intertwined with the Trump campaign during Brad Parscale's tenure.
"By 2020, the RNC wasn't merely an extension of the Trump campaign," Bender reportedly wrote, adding that Parscale, the campaign manager, "had effectively turned them into a full partner, and Ronna had become one of the president's closest advisers."
"The RNC was paying for the field staff. They were covering costs for state directors who couldn't get calls returned from campaign headquarters. Even the lease for the campaign headquarters was being paid for by the RNC," Bender wrote, according to Fox News.
Parscale was demoted in July 2020 in favor of Bill Stepien, a Kushner ally and top aide under Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey amid the "Bridgegate" scandal.
McDaniel held a grudge against Stepien after they clashed during Trump's 2016 campaign, when she was running the Michigan GOP ahead of a crucial victory there, the book reportedly says.
This all led to "tensions at the highest level of Trump World that finally exploded into an intense argument between Ronna and Jared inside the Trump Hotel," Bender reportedly wrote.
McDaniel was already being left out of key strategy meetings - Kushner added insult to injury when he considered taking over the RNC's online fundraising platform, WinRed, because he "didn't think the RNC could pull off the new operation," the book reportedly says.
McDaniel thought that WinRed - which eventually had to refund $122 million in online donations from people who unknowingly exceeded the federal limit on individual contributions - could be an effective "legacy project" for the GOP, but Kushner didn't buy it, the book reportedly says.
"Jared wasn't interested," the excerpt says, according to Fox News. "'I don't give a f--- about the future of the Republican Party!' he told Ronna inside the hotel meeting room. 'Good to know,' Ronna shot back. 'I will be running for chair for a second term, and I will make sure you don't come anywhere near this!'"