Ivanka Trump is heading to Peru for the Summit of the Americas, an event for which the White House on Wednesday arranged a media briefing. “Women’s economic empowerment has been a core mission of mine and an ongoing priority for the administration. This work is critical. When women are empowered economically, it contributes to increased economic growth, peace and global stability,” she said in an on-the-record statement during a call with reporters. Trump is an adviser and assistant to the president.
After Trump’s statement, the briefing turned into a “background” session, with reporters asking questions of “senior administration officials.” It started out with reporter Andrew Feinberg asking a question, and then with a Reuters reporter asking a question. See the sequence as represented in a White House transcript:
Golly — what “senior administration official” wouldn’t want to answer an extremely well-prefaced question about nepotism? In a brief chat with the Erik Wemple Blog, Feinberg said his line into the conference call was muted after the inquiry. “My other question was going to be on the women’s digital divide, but obviously I didn’t have a chance to follow up,” he said. Always lead with the softball.
