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sticks and stones

Henry Kissinger tries to find something nice to say about Jared Kushner

11:04 a.m. ET

Nobody really seems to like President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. In a recent poll of American voters, more people thought fondly of the widely-ridiculed White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer than they did of Ivanka Trump’s husband, and the ever-antagonistic Stephen Bannon has reportedly used his worst insults to describe Kushner, calling him a “cuck” and “worse than a Democrat.” But seeing as Kushner made Time’s list of the 100 Most Influential People on Thursday, the magazine had to find someone to say something nice about him.

The task fell on former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Now, Kissinger is a wordsmith in his own right, having written three memoirs — one of which won the National Book Award — and authored 14 books on public policy. But he was apparently at something of a loss when he was trying to come up with nice things to say about Kushner. Here is the most glowing part:

[…] I first met [Kushner] about 18 months ago, when he introduced himself after a foreign policy lecture I had given. We have sporadically exchanged views since. As part of the Trump family, Jared is familiar with the intangibles of the president. As a graduate of Harvard and NYU, he has a broad education; as a businessman, a knowledge of administration. All this should help him make a success of his daunting role flying close to the sun. [Time]

“Kissinger’s write-up of Jared Kushner is colder than a ‘H.A.G.S.’ yearbook signature,” BuzzFeed News’ Louis Peitzman dryly remarked. —Jeva Lange

This one???