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Ivanka Hasn’t Responded To Charlottesville & Twitter Is Not Happy
A tremendous amount of attention is currently focused on the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, where far-right white supremacist protesters faced off against anti-racist counter-protesters on Saturday afternoon. A reported 19 people were injured, and one killed, after a car plowed into a crowd of anti-racist demonstrators. The incident drew a widely panned response from President Donald Trump that placed blame on "many sides." And the lack of public statement from hish high-profile, allegedly influential daughter is also drawing some scrutiny: Ivanka Trump's non-response to Charlottesville is getting under some people's skin.
Update: On Sunday morning, Ivanka Trump responded to the news on Twitter, writing: "There should be no place in society for racism, white-supremacy, and neo-nazis. We must come together as Americans -- and be one country UNITED."
Earlier: Ivanka, along with her husband Jared Kushner, have long positioned themselves as the ostensibly reasonable, even somewhat progressive voices in the Trump administration, there to moderate the president's message and policies. However, this seems to have almost totally fallen apart in recent weeks, with Ivanka reportedly eager to deflate expectations about her influence over her father not long after he proclaimed that he wanted to ban transgender Americans from military service.
Needless to say, her father's statement on Charlottesville did not earn him much goodwill from anti-racists, progressives, leftists, and even some Republicans. But compared to Ivanka, he did at least said something ― she's been silent on the matter since it happened.
It’s important to note that both Ivanka and her husband are practicing Jews, and so may have avoided social media over the Shabbat period. At the time of this writing, however, Shabbat has been over for several hours.
1. Still No Statement?
2. If You Have A Shred Of Decency
3. Your Shameless Silence
4. Got History?
5. Do You Think
6. Any Comment?
7. Silent Re: The Neo-Nazi Rally
8. Here's A Small Peek
9. You Said To Lower Our Expectations
10. Where U At
11. More Top-Notch Advising
Lest you think it's unfair to demand a response from a presidential offspring, it's important to remember that Ivanka is far more than that. In addition to being a 35-year-old woman and having served as a passionate surrogate for her father's campaign, she's also a full-fledged government official, having officially joined the administration in late March. As such, there are expectations placed on her that wouldn't be for, say, her youngest brother Barron, or someone almost entirely removed from the administration like her sister Tiffany.
And, for the time being, she hasn't made a peep (or a tweet) about what transpired in Charlottesville on Saturday, to the apparent annoyance and displeasure of many. It remains to be seen whether she'll make any statement on the incident in the hours or days to come.