Hasan Minhaj took a jibe at Jared Kushner during TIME 100 gala, mocks his ties with Saudi Crown prince

Comedian Hasan Minhaj called out Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s White House adviser, for his close ties to Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman during his monologue at the TIME 100 Gala on Tuesday night. Both Kushner and Minhaj were being honoured at the Time 100 Gala for the issue on the most influential people of 2019.

.@hasanminhaj called out Jared Kushner to his face for his relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman at the #TIME100 Gala https://t.co/KMwukbeE2B pic.twitter.com/6jjtwAg2Ql

— TIME (@TIME) April 24, 2019

In his speech, with Kushner in the audience, Minhaj suggested that Kushner must use his relationship with the powerful Saudi crown prince to get Loujain Al-Hathloul, also a Time 100 honoree, out of prison. Loujain Al-Hathloul was jailed for advocating to lift the women’s driving ban in the kingdom. “I know there’s a lot of very powerful people here,” the comedian continued without dropping any names. “It would be crazy if there was a high-ranking official in the White House that could WhatsApp MBS and say, ‘Hey, maybe you could help that person get out of prison because they don’t deserve it,’ but that would be crazy. That would be — that person would have to be in the room, but that’s just a good comedy premise.” In an October episode of his Netflix show, Patriot Act, Minhaj accused the Saudi Arabian government of covering up their murder of Khashoggi, critized US arms sales and diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia and the US-backed Saudi-led war in Yemen, and the Saudi government’s treatment of women. In early January, Netflix confirmed that it removed the episode that criticised Saudi Arabia, after officials in the kingdom reportedly complained. The episode later went viral on YouTube, where Minhaj took to Twitter and commented on the issue, stating that the move would only incite more people to watch the episode.