Sarah Huckabee Sanders Blames Media for ‘Attacking’ Ivanka Trump: ‘It’s Very Shameful’

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders recently sat down with Conservative Radio Host (and MBSNBC anchor) Hugh Hewitt for a wide-ranging interview on current White House dynamics and the news of the day. Not surprisingly, the politically-allied pair found agreement on most issues raised in this game of softball batting practice, but Sanders defense of President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump was enough to raise some eyebrows.

Here’s a transcript of this particular portion of the 10 minute interview:

HH: Is the White House Press Corps taking Ivanka’s role seriously enough? I don’t believe they are. I think they are downplaying her substantive role. But what do you think, Sarah Huckabee Sanders?

SHS: I frankly, I think it’s shameful the way that she’s been treated. If she didn’t have the same last name, they would be celebrating her. They would be praising her. They would be thanking God that she is sitting in a position that she is to influence policy and help women across this country. And instead, they attack her, they shame her, and they belittle her. I think it’s very shameful, and I think it’s sad, because she’s such a good advocate for so many women. And for them to attack her, I think, is just really disheartening.

HH: How do you change that dynamic, because she is an asset. I’ve been writing about that for two years. Her father used to joke with me during the debates that she liked me a lot more than he did, and I said that’s pretty obvious, Mr. President. But I mean, how do you turn that dynamic around so that people take it seriously?

SHS: I mean, I think it’s through a lot of the things that she’s doing and highlighting the actual work instead of the person. She’s done a great job working with the World Bank, through helping female entrepreneurs across the globe. They announced that that initiative was fully operational as of this week. I think being able to talk about those things, being able to highlight actual policy successes, is the best way to help show what she’s doing and what a success story she has.

The White House Press Secretary’s position is that, if Ivanka Trump did not share the same last name as the president, she would not be attacked, shamed and belittled by the media, or more specifically to Hewitt’s question, the White House Press Corps.

What this argument fails to overlook is that, if Ivanka Trump did not share the same last name as her father (the sitting president!) she would almost certainly not be in the position to have such influence on these matters. For that matter, since the vast majority of Ivanka’s business acumen and personal financial success has come from licensing her last name to various products — many of which are manufactured overseas —  Ivanka would not be, well, Ivanka!

By any measure Ivanka Trump appears to be a smart and very composed ambassador to the Trump family name, and it’s worthy for her to use her power and influence to advance the issues that she most fervently believes in.

But the notion that she is somehow a victim of poor treatment because of the very last name that affords her a seat on Air Force One, a West Wing office and the nearly always-available ear of the sitting U.S. President? That’s not unfair treatment, that’s winning the lottery in life. It’s also known as nepotism and it’s not something we should so readily accept as standard.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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