Kushner Lauds Powell, Fed for Coronavirus Response

White House adviser Jared Kushner told CNBC on Thursday that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell "has really stepped up to the plate" during the coronavirus pandemic.

"Look, you really see what people are made of in times of crisis, and I think that Chairman Powell has really stepped up to the plate, and he's done a lot of the right things to make sure that the market was able to get through the crisis," Kushner told "Squawk Box."

Although President Donald Trump, Kushner's father-in-law, has repeatedly criticized Powell and the Fed and said in March he was "not happy" with how the Fed reacted to the coronavirus, Kushner told CNBC that Powell and the White House have "all worked very well together," during the crisis.

"It was a lot great work by obviously the president, the Vice President [Mike Pence], Secretary Mnuchin and obviously Chairman Powell," he said. "I think they've all worked very well together to, again, get the country through a very, very difficult period. Now we obviously are in a better place than we would have been, but the opportunity to go ahead is really going to be tremendous."

Shortly after Kushner's comments, Powell announced the Fed was making a major change to "average inflation targeting," which could keep interest rates from increasing by allowing inflation to rise.

"Many find it counterintuitive that the Fed would want to push up inflation," Powell said Thursday. "However, inflation that is persistently too low can pose serious risks to the economy."

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