October 29, 2019

Fox & Friends’ Brian Kilmeade tried to defend Ivanka Trump’s undeserved position in the White House by comparing her to Robert F. Kennedy. Kilmeade forgot to mention the big differences: RFK was confirmed by the Senate, he had relevant experience and he didn’t have conflicts of interest with outside business interests.

On Friday, Kilmeade tried to square attacking Joe Biden, whose son got a job in Ukraine he supposedly didn’t deserve. with defending Princess Nepotism Ivanka Trump.

In a brief video clip, Biden referred to Ivanka and her equally unqualified husband, Jared Kushner, working in the White House on matters “they know nothing about.”

Predictably, the Trump friends jumped in to defend the country’s least qualified “advisers."

“When you think about Joe Biden and you think about his children, naturally, you think these days about Hunter Biden,” cohost Steve Doocy said, interrupting the clip. Of course, Hunter Biden was hired by a business. Ivanka and Jared, on the other hand, got national security clearances they didn’t deserve.

However, “close to 10 territory on the Trump approval scale" Kilmeade jumped in to pretend Ivanka Trump earned her position.

KILMEADE: Ivanka Trump, who’s an international businesswoman … hasn’t been in government before. That’s suddenly a problem?

And then you have people in history like that Bill and Robert F. Kennedy working with John F Kennedy. How dare he work as attorney general!”

Kilmeade also said President Andrew Jackson “had all his relatives in the cabinet for the longest time” and “ has been listed as one of our best presidents.”

Kilmeade then wound himself up to start exclaiming about how poorly Biden had gotten his message across.

I’ll put aside the Andrew Jackson presidency, the reference to "Bill" whomever and Biden's performance in order to focus on Kilmeade’s hilariously ridiculous comparison of Ivanka Trump to Robert Kennedy.

It’s true, as Contemptor noted, that RFK’s appointment to brother JFK's cabinet was controversial. But, unlike Ivanka, Robert Kennedy earned respect – so much so that he later became a U.S. Senator and a strong presidential contender. Also unlike Ivanka, Kennedy had some relevant experience: He served as counsel to U.S. Senate Committees.

Ivanka, on the other hand… Well, here’s how Jamelle Bouie summed her up for Slate in 2018:

The extent to which Ivanka Trump has no particular expertise is staggering given her apparent responsibilities. Take her trip to South Korea. Trump has no experience in international diplomacy, nuclear proliferation, or the history of the Korean Peninsula. Likewise, she had no particular competency when she stood in for the president at a forum in Saudi Arabia on tackling expertise, or when she traveled to India to head the U.S delegation at a summit on global entrepreneurism.

Each of those would constitute a surprising and difficult assignment for someone whose resume consists of managing a small apparel line and appearing on The Apprentice.

Today's Daily Beast has an eye-opening article on just how much scrutiny Ivanka has dodged - and an obvious suggestion she deserves much. much more:

Ivanka received virtually no additional press scrutiny after The New Yorker detailed her work on a real-estate project in Azerbaijan with local partners who had alleged ties to the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated terrorist organization. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee subsequently called on the Justice Department and the Treasury Department to investigate the deal for possibly violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Then there was Ivanka’s very close brush with a criminal indictment for inflating condo sales to potential buyers at the Trump Soho, a development project she helped oversee. And remember it was Ivanka, among others, who advocated for the hiring of Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn. (A spokesperson for a prominent Washington think tank told me it was “malpractice” by congressional Democrats that Ivanka hasn’t been subpoenaed by the House Intelligence Committee.) Somehow, though, none of these poor judgement calls have made it into the dominant media narrative about the first daughter.

So if Kilmeade wants to compare Ivanka Trump to Robert F. Kennedy, I say, let's bring it on.

Watch Kilmeade put lipstick on the pig of Ivanka Trump’s White House position above, from the October 25, 2019 Fox & Friends.

Published with permission from News Hounds.

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