Reprinted with permission from Shareblue.
Ivanka Trump tried to lie to a reporter about her father authorizing the use of lethal force against refugees coming to America, but was forced to backtrack quickly when she got caught.
At Trump’s direction, White House chief of staff John Kelly issued a memo granting troops stationed at the U.S.-Mexico border the power to use “lethal force, where necessary.”
But when Ivanka Trump was asked about this policy in an interview with ABC News, her first inclination was to lie about it.
Reporter Deborah Roberts asked, “Your father has authorized lethal force, he says, if necessary. Does that concern you?”
“I don’t believe that that’s what he said,” Ivanka lied, “but his primary role as commander-in-chief is obviously to protect the nation’s borders. He has to protect our country’s security. But I don’t … Lethal force in this case would … [laughs] That is not something I think that anyone’s talking about.”
As she lied, Ivanka laughed off the claim, as if it were a fantasy.
The ABC broadcast then showed footage of Donald Trump unambiguously noting, “If they have to, they’re going to use lethal force, I’ve given the okay.”
Roberts noted that they showed Ivanka the statement from her father. Abruptly, she changed her tune and tried to clean up her lying.
“So, lethal force,” she said, “under any circumstance would be the last resort, but he is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of this country, so he always has to be able to protect the border. He’s not talking about innocents.”
The lie and subsequent cover-up of the lie are a microcosm of how Ivanka has operated during her father’s presidency.
She and her team are engaged in a public relations campaign that claims she is a “moderating” influence on Trump’s destructive, racist, sexist and otherwise disastrous impulses.
In reality, she has been complicit in some of his worst actions and has sought to avoid being publicly associated with the more unsavory aspects of his unpopular presidency.
Trump is hostile to migrant refugees seeking asylum from abuses in countries like Honduras, has authorized the use of tear gas against infants, and has separated children from their families at the border.
Ivanka Trump is a key member of the administration enacting these policies, and stood by her father as he engaged in racist and xenophobic attacks on desperate people.
No amount of lying about his latest impulse — authorizing lethal force against refugees — can cover up her decision to play a major role in the deplorable operation.
Published with permission of The American Independent.
