Poor Ivanka. She’s jetted off to Morocco as part of her ongoing empowerment public relations tour, but unfortunately for her, she keeps being asked about her daddy’s impeachment. And as always, her response shows that she’s a dedicated foot soldier for the president and Trump family name, willing to defend any and all of his behavior through gritted veneers.
In an interview with the Associated Press’s Darlene Superville, Ivanka was asked to share her thoughts about what has been clearly revealed in closed-door Congressional testimony and reporting—that her dad attempted to pressure the government of Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
“The president put forth the transcript. So everything is in the transcript for the American people,” she responded.
Actually, that’s not true! And when Superville pressed her on the fact that the transcript of Trump’s call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was filled with some pretty key deletions, she reiterated, “We stand by the transcript.”
What about the whistleblower? She shared that she disagrees with people (like her brother Don Jr.) that the whistleblower should be outed, but she also parroted Republican talking points that attempt to paint the whistleblower as part of some Democratic plot to get Trump out of office. She pointed to 2017 tweets by one of the whistleblower’s lawyers, widely discussed on Fox News and in conservative media, in which he wrote that a “coup has started” and that “impeachment will follow ultimately.”
“I do think that makes one question intent and motivation, which is relevant,” she said, skirting this close to calling the whistleblower a deep state operative. As she told Superville, she agrees with her dad that the impeachment inquiry is about “overturning the results of the 2016 election.” “Basically since the election, this has been the experience that our administration and our family has been having,” Ivanka said. “Rather than wait, under a year, until the people can decide for themselves based on his record and based on his accomplishments, this new effort has—has commenced.”
“But to us, it’s really been like this from the beginning,” she added. And it’s not just Trump who has been criticized in this way, Ivanka noted: “Abraham Lincoln was famously, even within his own Cabinet, surrounded by people who were former political adversaries.” Ivanka, presidential historian!
This strenuous defense of her father, relying heavily on the narrative that’s being pushed out by Republicans in Congress and repeated ad nauseam in rightwing media outlets, is a shift from her previous interviews, in which Ivanka has attempted to deflect attention away from the impeachment inquiry. What’s changed? Maybe she’s seen her brother Don Jr.’s ascension in their father’s approval rankings and is worried about losing her most favored status. Whatever it is, Ivanka is now clearly all in. But that was never really in doubt.