Silke Jasso
Ivanka Trump defended her father’s record on women’s issues in Germany on Tuesday, and she was booed for it.
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Those who booed should be ashamed of themselves.
Not because the president has a good record on those issues or in his approach to women in general – far from it – or even because Mrs. Trump was necessarily right about the facts related to her famous father.
No, she didn’t deserve to be booed because she was simply defending her dad. That’s a normal thing for any daughter or son to do.
RELATED: Ivanka Trump visited Germany and didn’t get the warm reception one would expect
CNN’s Chris Cillizza gets it right:
You can hate Donald Trump’s views on and treatment of women — and lots of people do! But, to expect Ivanka Trump to publicly condemn her father or his record on women’s issues is a bridge too far. It’s impossible for us to know what Ivanka Trump does (or doesn’t do) to influence her father’s views behind the scenes. And, because of that — and the fact that she is his daughter! — booing her for defending her dad is poor form.
This crowd booed Ivanka Trump when she called her father a ‘champion of supporting families’ pic.twitter.com/WIlugMQp4s
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) April 25, 2017
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Any public figures are fair game for scorn, including and especially the outspoken Ivanka Trump, but the notion that presidents’ spouses or children should also treat their family member primarily as a political figure first is ludicrous. Family comes first. How many of us have loved ones we defend or at least make excuses for, even when they are wrong? It’s something people do out of pure love and familial loyalty.
It would be wrong for Sasha or Malia Obama to publicly attack their father, and it’s almost impossible to imagine them doing so. It would be inappropriate for former First Lady Michelle to do this too. The same goes for George W. Bush’s daughters and his wife Laura.
You wouldn’t expect them to do this because that’s not how tight-knit families behave.
“It’s important to remember that Ivanka is, first and foremost, her father’s daughter,” Cillizza writes. “As such, she is going to defend him — as would almost every daughter in any situation in which her dad is under attack.”
Exactly right. The only reason Ivanka Trump should have been booed on Tuesday was if she didn’t defend him.
