NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are threatening to sue an anti-Trump political action committee over a billboard in Times Square.
The billboard features Trump’s daughter smiling and gesturing toward a COVID-19 death toll of New Yorkers and Americans. Her husband, Kushner, is seen smiling next to a quote attributed to him, “[New Yorkers] are going to suffer and that’s their problem.”
The Lincoln Project, which put up the billboard, tweeted a letter from a lawyer for the couple threatening to sue over the billboard, which the lawyer called “outrageous and shameful libel.”
“If these billboard ads are not immediately removed, we will sue you for what will doubtless be enormous compensatory and punitive damages,” attorney Marc Kasowitz wrote in the letter.
Kasowitz said “Mr. Kushner never made any such statement” and that “Ms. Trump never made any such gesture.”
The quote credited to Kushner is from a September Vanity Fair article. The article attributed the quote to an “attendee” at a reported White House meeting in March in which Kushner criticized Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
In the full quote, the attendee claimed Kushner said: “Cuomo didn’t pound the phones hard enough to get PPE for his state…. His people are going to suffer and that’s their problem.”
The Lincoln Project responded in a statement to the lawyer’s letter, writing in part: “It is unsurprising that an administration that has never had any regard or understanding of our Constitution would try to trample on our first amendment rights, but we fully intend on making this civics lesson as painful as possible.”
“Jared and Ivanka have always been entitled, out-of-touch bullies who have never given the slightest indication they have any regard for the American people. We plan on showing them the same level of respect,” the statement goes on to say.
The Lincoln Project said the billboards will stay up so that “people are continuously reminded of the cruelty, audacity, and staggering lack of empathy the Trumps and the Kushners have displayed towards the American people.”