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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy is Ivanka Trump engaging in international diplomacy?
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/why-ivanka-trump-engaging-international-diplomacy?cid=sm_fb_maddow
Why is Ivanka Trump engaging in international diplomacy?
02/26/18 09:30 AM
By Steve Benen
Not long after the 2016 election, CBS News Leslie Stahl noted to Ivanka Trump that there were widely held assumptions that she would soon have a role in her fathers administration. No, she replied. Im going to be a daughter.
It was a commitment she quickly abandoned. Ivanka Trump soon had a West Wing office, a staff, a policy portfolio, and a presence on the international stage.
Trump World continues to push this envelope. On Friday, Donald Trump announced new sanctions on North Korea, and soon after, the Wall Street Journal had this report:
Ms. Trump, daughter of President Donald Trump, landed in the afternoon and headed to the presidential Blue House in Seoul for a dinner with President Moon Jae-in.
In case this isnt obvious, Ivanka Trump, who previously created a consumer fashion brand and made frequent appearances on her fathers reality show, has no experience in foreign policy or diplomacy.
And yet, according to the Trump administration, Ivanka Trump reportedly briefed South Korean leaders on the new U.S. sanctions on North Korea. When Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was asked if the presidents daughter had the necessary security clearance for such a briefing, he replied, She has the appropriate access to brief the president.
The difference between access and clearance matters. Indeed, Ivanka Trump is one of several people in the presidents orbit who has not yet obtained a permanent security clearance.
Is it too late for the political world to have a conversation about this? If Hillary Clinton had dispatched Chelsea Clinton to brief South Korean officials about North Korean sanctions, despite having no relevant experience or even a proper security clearance, would congressional Republicans shrug their shoulders or would the walls of Capitol Hill shake from their collective screaming?
For his part, the president called into Janine Pirros Fox News program on Saturday night and was asked if hed spoken to Ivanka Trump since her arrival in South Korea.
Of course, Vice President Mike Pence was also recently in South Korea, representing the United States. Apparently, hes the second best American representative, right after one of the presidents adult children.
sheshe2
(83,791 posts)gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Why shouldn't the president's daughter, who doesn't have security clearance, go to Korea and negotiate on behalf of the country? Surely those North Koreans wouldn't be so sneaky as to use classified material against Ivanka or try a little casual blackmail against her husband, who appears to have an entire valley of dry bones worth of skeletons in his closet? That would be dirty pool and beneath the North Koreans!
I remember a time when Republicans were gripped with an obsession, bordering on mania, about national security and protecting the country's secrets. Now? La dee dah, la dee dah. They'd give Diane Keaton a run for her money.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)I can't believe this shit.
dalton99a
(81,516 posts)to succeed Shithole
HipChick
(25,485 posts)magicarpet
(14,155 posts)spanone
(135,844 posts)imagine Chelsea in the same situation.
she would be testifying before nunes as we speak.
FSogol
(45,488 posts)I hope Korea laughed at her.
greatauntoftriplets
(175,742 posts)Who explained them to her, or did she have a cheat sheet?