Ivanka Trump on Impeachment Whistleblower: ‘It’s Not Particularly Relevant’

Ivanka Trump, the daughter and senior adviser to President Donald Trump, in Rabat, Morocco on Nov. 8, 2019. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, echoed her father’s view of the impeachment inquiry, saying it is an attempt to overturn the 2016 election.

But she said that the identity of the whistleblower at the center of the controversy isn’t important.

“The whistleblower shouldn’t be a substantive part of the conversation,” she told The Associated Press, because that person “did not have firsthand information.”

President Donald Trump and some of his allies in Congress have called on the whistleblower to testify in public while at least one, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), said they would unmask the person to the public. They argued that the whistleblower may have substantial political biases.

The identity of the person, Ivanka told AP, “to me, it’s not particularly relevant, aside from what the motivation behind all of this was.”

“Basically since the election this has been the experience that our administration and our family has been having,” she also said of the criticism surrounding the president, adding that Democrats don’t want to “wait, under a year, until the people can decide for themselves based on his record and based on his accomplishments.”

Ivanka Trump, the daughter and senior adviser to President Donald Trump, in Rabat, Morocco on Nov. 8, 2019. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

“But to us, it’s really been like this from the beginning,” she said.

She commented on the House Democrat-run impeachment inquiry, which was based on an anonymous intelligence community whistleblower complaint that claimed her father tried to pressure Ukraine into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden.

“The president put forth a transcript,” she said, referring to the White House’s release of the July 25 phone call between President Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart. “So everything is in the transcript.”

Farmer Aicha Bourkib kisses Ivanka Trump's hand, the daughter and senior adviser to President Donald Trump, in the province of Sidi Kacem, Morocco on Nov. 7, 2019, as Ivanka Trump tours an olive grove collective where local women farmers are benefitting from changes allowing them to inherit land. Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo

She told the news outlet that her father, despite the impeachment controversy, is helping Americans.

“I think when Americans are winning, we’re feeling great,” Ivanka said. “I think Americans are prospering like never before.”

Elaborating further, Ivanka said that many other U.S. presidents have been the focus of scorn, including a few notable ones.

“Abraham Lincoln was famously, even within his own Cabinet, surrounded by people who were former political adversaries,” she said, referring to the 16th president, who was also the first Republican president.

Ivanka also told the news agency that she’s not sure about what she role she will have in her father’s reelection campaign, adding that the answer would depend on her children.