RABAT, Morocco
(AP) — Ivanka Trump on Friday echoed her father’s view that the House
impeachment investigation is an attempt to overturn the 2016 election.
But, in an interview with The Associated Press, she parted ways with
President Donald Trump by calling the identity of the impeachment
whistleblower “not particularly relevant.”
The
Republican president and some of his allies have been pressing the news
media to publicize the whistleblower’s name, but Ivanka Trump said the
person’s motives were more important. And she declined to speculate on
what they may have been.
“The
whistleblower shouldn’t be a substantive part of the conversation,” she
told the AP, saying the person “did not have firsthand information.”
She added that, “to me, it’s not particularly relevant aside from what the motivation behind all of this was.”
In
a wide-ranging, 25-minute interview, Ivanka Trump also addressed her
family’s criticism of Democrat Joe Biden and his son Hunter, whether she
wants four more years in the White House and the possible future sale
of her family’s landmark Washington hotel, which she helped develop and
referred to as “my baby.”
She
said she shares her father’s oft-repeated view that the impeachment
investigation is about “overturning the results of the 2016 election.”
House Democrats, by contrast, maintain the inquiry is about whether
Trump abused his office by putting his political interests first.
“Basically
since the election, this has been the experience that our
administration and our family has been having,” Ivanka Trump said of
persistent criticism of the president. “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 commenced.”
Asked
whether impeachment marked a low point for the president, she demurred:
“I think when Americans are winning, we’re feeling great, so I wouldn’t
consider it a low point. I think Americans are prospering like never
before.”
Ivanka
Trump noted that the whistleblower was not among administration
officials who heard the president ask Ukraine’s leader during a July 25
telephone conversation to investigate Biden, a former vice president
who’s currently a leading contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential
nomination to challenge Trump.
While
her brothers Don Jr. and Eric have been vocal critics of the
impeachment inquiry, Ivanka Trump has largely stayed out of the
discussion. She did recently tweet a quote from Thomas Jefferson about
the “enemies and spies” who surrounded him and added that “some things
never change, dad.”
In
the interview, she again placed her father in august company when it
comes to being the target of criticism, saying, “This has been the
experience of most.”
“Abraham
Lincoln was famously, even within his own Cabinet, surrounded by people
who were former political adversaries,” she said.
She
rejected any suggestion that her family has been profiting off the
presidency even as President Trump and his allies have criticized the
involvement of Biden’s son with a Ukrainian oil venture when Biden was
vice president.
Hunter
Biden served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company at the same time
his father was leading the Obama administration’s diplomatic dealings
with Kyiv. Though the timing raised concerns among anti-corruption
advocates, there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by either the former
vice president or his son.
Still,
Ivanka Trump said the Bidens had “created wealth as a derivative” of
public service while her family had made its money in business before
her father became president.
Good
government groups, however, have criticized the president for
unethically mixing official business with promotion of his own
interests.
Trump
is the first president in modern history who has not separated himself
from his business holdings. He makes frequent trips to his for-profit
golf clubs, collects dues at his members-only properties and hosts
fundraisers and foreign delegations at hotels that bear his family’s
name.
Ivanka
Trump said she hasn’t been involved in discussions about the possible
sale of the president’s landmark Washington hotel after nearly three
years of ethics complaints and lawsuits accusing him of trying to profit
off the presidency. She led the acquisition and development of the
hotel a few blocks from the White House.
But, a possible future sale “should satisfy the critics,” she said.
The
president’s daughter is wrapping up a three-day visit to Morocco, where
she has been promoting a U.S. program aimed at empowering women in
developing countries.
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Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap
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