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By Jen Psaki This is an adapted excerpt from the Dec. 2 episode of "Inside with Jen Psaki." It’s getting to be that time when the news cycle is so crazy that some of the wildest storylines out of Trump world start to fly under the radar. That’s what happened this past weekend when Donald Trump announced his choice to be ambassador to France — a position once held by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. On Saturday, Trump announced on social media he would give that plum diplomatic post to New Jersey real estate mogul Charles Kushner, father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Like Trump, the elder Kushner has also faced allegations of corruption throughout his life as he built up a family empire. Seems like a typical story out of the Trump orbit, right? A wealthy convicted felon who’s a friend of the family. In fact, if you’re curious why Kushner wasn’t in Trump’s last administration, it might be because he’s a convicted felon. Back in 2004, Kushner pleaded guilty to 18 federal charges, arising from hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign donations he made as a New Jersey political power broker. Kushner admitted to violating election laws, tax evasion and witness tampering. He ended up serving two years in federal prison. Seems like a typical story out of the Trump orbit, right? A wealthy convicted felon who’s a friend of the family. But actually, no one in Trump’s inner circle has ever done what Kushner did to obstruct justice. Back in 2003, when the federal grand jury investigation of Kushner began, the jury heard evidence from two key witnesses: Kushner’s sister and her husband. When he pleaded guilty, Kushner acknowledged that after he found out some members of his family were cooperating with authorities, he arranged to have a prostitute seduce his brother-in-law in a motel room in New Jersey where video cameras were installed. The plot succeeded and Kushner later had a videotape sent to his sister. Then-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie called it “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he had prosecuted. But in Trump’s last days as president in 2020, he gave the elder Kushner a presidential pardon, one that was roundly criticized even among his many other questionable pardons. And now Trump wants him to be the ambassador in Paris and the top diplomat to one of America’s oldest nuclear-armed allies. The ambassador to a country where they have the internet and Google and certainly know all about Kushner’s past. This would be bigger news if not for the avalanche of alarming reports surrounding Trump’s other nominees. But guess what? Kushner isn’t even the only presidential in-law named to get a job this week. Then-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie called it “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” that he had prosecuted. On Sunday, Trump announced on social media that he was naming Massad Boulos to be a senior White House adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs. Boulos is a Lebanese American businessman and the CEO of SCOA Nigeria, a billion-dollar auto company. He has no diplomatic experience, but he is the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany Trump. So, I guess the question is: Just how many important government positions can you hand out to wealthy friends and family, including convicted felons with no relevant experience, before that government crumbles under the weight of its own corruption? I honestly don’t know the answer. But we may be about to find out. Allison Detzel contributed. Jen Psaki is the host of "Inside with Jen Psaki" airing Sundays at 12 p.m. ET and Mondays at 8 p.m. EST. She is the former White House press secretary for President Joe Biden.

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Is he a hero? A killer? Both? About the same time the #FreeLuigi memes featuring the mustachioed plumber from “Super Mario Brothers” mushroomed online, commenters shared memes showing Tony Soprano pronouncing Luigi Mangione , the man charged with murdering the UnitedHealthcare CEO in Manhattan , a hero. There were posts lionizing Mangione’s physique and appearance, the ones speculating about who could play him on “Saturday Night Live,” and the ones denouncing and even threatening people at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s for spotting him and calling police. It was all too much for Pennsylvania's governor, a rising Democrat who was nearly the vice presidential nominee this year. Josh Shapiro — dealing with a case somewhere else that happened to land in his lap — decried what he saw as growing support for “vigilante justice.” The curious case of Brian Thompson and Luigi Mangione captivated and polarized a media-saturated nation. It also offers a glimpse into how, in a connected world, so many different aspects of modern American life can be surreally linked — from public violence to politics, from health care to humor (or attempts at it) . It summons a question, too: How can so many people consider someone a hero when the rules that govern American society — the laws — are treating him as the complete opposite? Luigi Mangione, a suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, on Monday at the police station in Altoona, Pa. Pennsylvania State Police via AP Writings found in Mangione's possession hinted at a vague hatred of corporate greed and an expression of anger toward “parasitic” health insurance companies. Bullets recovered from the crime scene had the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose,” reflecting words used by insurance industry critics, written on them. A number of online posts combine an apparent disdain for health insurers — with no mention of the loss of life. “He took action against private health insurance corporations is what he did. he was a brave italian martyr. in this house, luigi mangione is a hero, end of story!” one anonymous person said in a post on X that has nearly 2 million views. On Monday, Shapiro took issue with comments like those. It was an extraordinary moment that he tumbled into simply because Mangione was apprehended in Pennsylvania. Shapiro's comments — pointed, impassioned and, inevitably, political — yanked the conversation unfolding on so many people's phone screens into real life. “We do not kill people in cold blood to resolve policy differences or express a viewpoint,” the governor said. “In a civil society, we are all less safe when ideologues engage in vigilante justice.” But to hear some of his fellow citizens tell it, that's not the case at all. Like Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, D.B. Cooper and other notorious names from the American past, Mangione is being cast as someone to admire. Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts Luigi Nicholas Mangione is escorted into Blair County Courthouse on Tuesday in Hollidaysburg, Pa. Gary M. Baranec, Associated Press Regina Bateson, an assistant political science professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has studied vigilantism, the term to which Shapiro alluded. She doesn’t see this case as a good fit for the word, she says, because the victim wasn’t linked to any specific crime or offense. As she sees it, it's more akin to domestic terrorism. But Bateson views the threats against election workers , prosecutors and judges ticking up — plus the assassination attempts against President-elect Donald Trump this past summer — as possible signs that personal grievances or political agendas could erupt. “Americans are voicing more support for — or at least understanding of — political violence,” she said. Shapiro praised the police and the people of Blair County, who abided by a 9/11-era dictum of seeing something and saying something. The commenters have Mangione wrong, the governor said: “Hear me on this: He is no hero. The real hero in this story is the person who called 911 at McDonald’s this morning." A person demonstrates Monday near the McDonald's restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where police earlier in the day arrested Luigi Nicholas Mangione, 26, in the Dec. 4 killing of UnitedHealthcare's CEO in Manhattan. Ted Shaffrey, Associated Press Even shy of supporting violence, there are many instances of people who vent over how health insurers deny claims. Tim Anderson's wife, Mary, dealt with UnitedHealthcare coverage denials before she died from Lou Gehrig’s disease in 2022. “The business model for insurance is don’t pay,” Anderson, 67, of Centerville, Ohio, told The Associated Press . The discourse around the killing and Mangione is more than just memes. Conversations about the interconnectedness of various parts of American life are unfolding online as well. One Reddit user said he was banned for three days for supporting Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted after testifying he acted in self-defense when he fatally shot two people in 2020 during protests. “Do you think people are getting banned for supporting Luigi?” the poster wondered. The comments cover a lot of ground. They include people saying the UnitedHealthcare slaying isn't a “right or left issue" and wondering what it would take to get knocked off the platform. “You probably just have to cross the line over into promoting violence,” one commenter wrote. “Not just laughing about how you don’t care about this guy.” Luigi Mangione is taken into the Blair County Courthouse on Tuesday in Hollidaysburg, Pa. Memes and online posts in support of the 26-year-old man, who's charged with killing UnitedHealthcare's CEO, have mushroomed online. Benjamin B. Braun, Associated Press

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