Ivanka's Silence Is Deafening; Jared's Too, As The Fires Of White Nationalism Burn Around Them

Writing for the Miami Herald today, Ana Veciana-Suarez's comments deserve direct quotation:

Oh where, oh where has Ivanka Trump gone?

Oh where, oh where can she be?

This parody of that kids’ song has been looping around my head for days, a refrain that echoes my horror at the violence in Charlottesville and the disgust over President Trump’s inexcusable defense of the neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

Of all the Trumps, of all the White House aides, of all Jews associated with this presidency, I remained convinced that it would be the first daughter who would be vehemently vocal in her condemnation. She needed to do this for her country, yes, but also for her family.

Okay, so Ivanka delivered two tweets on Charlottesville:

1:2 There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis.

2:2 We must all come together as Americans — and be one country UNITED. #Charlottesville

Is that it? Now it's time for President Trump's key adviser with no political expertise to make some peanut butter sandwiches with the kids because it's just too hot in the national-spotlight kitchen? Did Ivanka really think her job was to be ravishingly glam -- a welcome diversion to America's pain and that of Jews and people of color in particular -- while white nationalists carried blazing tiki torches in Charlottesville shouting the Nazi slogan "blood and soil"?

Fourteen of 16 major charities have cancelled their winter fundraisers at Mar-a-Lago. America's biggest corporations have condemned her father's inflammatory nod to the white nationalists who stormed Charlottesville shouting "You will not replace us," and "Jews will not replace us."

James Murdoch donated $1 million to the Anti-Defamation league, circulating an email to friends and family, asking them to reflect on the hate on the move in America. Murdoch actually referenced the cultural impact of movies like '12 Years A Slave' and 'I Am Malala' in helping him develop an understanding and commitment to stamp out dangerous and divisive ideologies like white nationalism. 

The anti-Jewish hate got much more personal in the widely-viewed VICE video, produced by 'VICE News Tonight' correspondent Elle Reeve.  The now-disgraced, white nationalist crybaby Christopher Cantwell made explosive anti-Semitic remarks about Ivanka's husband Jared Kushner in his Elle Reeve interview. 

He said he hoped for someone he considered capable to soon lead the country, "somebody like Donald Trump, who does not give his daughter to a Jew."

When asked if that meant "Donald Trump but more racist," Cantwell responded "a lot more racist.… I don't think you could feel the way about race that I do and watch that Kushner bastard walk around with that beautiful girl, OK?"

Ana Veciana-Suarez's asks again:

Oh where, oh where has Ivanka Trump gone?

Oh where, oh where can she be?

Ivanka is quick to superficially honor her commitments to Orthodox Judaism, a conversion that required high-level agreement in Israel, because Ivanka was becoming an Orthodox Jew, not a Reform Jew. Her own Rabbi Emeritus Haskel Lookstein denounced her father's remarks:  

“We are appalled by this resurgence of bigotry and antisemitism, and the renewed vigor of the neo-Nazis, KKK and alt-right. While we always avoid politics, we are deeply troubled by the moral equivalency and equivocation President Trump has offered in his response to this act of violence.”

Ivanka weighed in about Saturday's anti-white nationalism march in Boston. Her tweets were lovely.

Arizona Here We Come

Should we assume that Ivanka Trump is headed to Phoenix Tuesday night, even though the Republican governor Doug Ducey won't attend the presidential campaign rally?

Ducey will greet the president but then work with law enforcement toward a safe event for the crowds coming together tonight in Phoenix. 

Leading up to the rally -- the mayor of Phoenix asked Trump to postpone it in the wake of Charlottesville -- the governor joined law enforcement last Friday for a public-safety briefing that included the US Secret Service, Arizona's Department of Public Safety and the Phoenix Police Department.

Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams last week worked to assure residents that the department is well-prepared for the visit. She promised "maximum staffing" at the event and noted Phoenix's partnerships with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center. via

Many believe that Trump is coming to Arizona tonight -- not to heal America -- but to inflame racial, anti-immigrant tensions. If Trump gives a healing speech, I will be the first to apologize for my statement. But until proven wrong, my expectation is that Trump is flying to Arizona to stir up his base. This is how America's president rolls. 

Ivanka was the picture perfect mother leaving Bedminster Sunday night, with the revelation that the Trump family lifestyle has totally blasted a hole in the Secret Service budget. Granted, there have been budget issues with other presidents, too, but not because their lifestyles set Secret Service protections to an entirely new level. 

Does Ivanka know -- or even care -- that the Secret Service agents protecting her may not be paid, that they are protecting the Trump clan without receiving their salary? Or in two weeks, they will not be paid?

Does Ivanka ever come off her perch for a reckoning moment with reality? Reports that she was instrumental in getting Steve Bannon out of the White House are not enough. We are talking white nationalism in America. 

Ky Congressional Candidate Amy McGrath Confronts Trump's Moral Confusion

One person who has articulated the Trump family's moral dilemma is KY-6 Democratic Congressional candidate Amy McGrath, a retired lieutenant colonel Marine who delivered a scathing indictment of the moral ambivalence that surrounds the Trump family. 

McGrath's words make Ivanka Trump look like a totally spineless woman, one quietly complicit in the racist indictments echoing in our ears after Charlottesville. My own commitments to social and racial justice have always put me at odds with my family -- especially my mother -- so I understand how difficult it is to speak clearly against hate when one's own family propagates it. 

We'll be watching you in Phoenix tonight, Ivanka. If your father spews hate or does something incredible like indicating that he will pardon Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio -- and you send out one of your lalala tweets -- we are finished for good.

Most of us have given up on you having any serious ability to moderate your father. First Lady Melania Trump is credited with changing Trump's mind around declaring America's drug crisis a national emergency after he publicly said he would NOT declare one.

SNL infamously called you Complicit early in your White House tenure. Increasingly, it appears they were right. At this point, a majority of Americans are disappointed in your father, our president, Ivanka. A mere 25% give him good marks on how he handled Charlottesville. Are you with the large majority of Americans on this topic?

Meanwhile, Amy McGrath shows you what real leadership looks like, because McGrath sat in a fighter jet on 9/11 knowing that she was waiting for orders to shoot down a commercial airliner. Although she doesn't say so in her video, I believe that flight was UA93, the fourth hijacked airliner and the only one unaccounted for, as the other three had crashed in New York and DC. 

Your life may be a bowl of ripe cherries, Ivanka, but it's not so for vast numbers of America's military who have fought valiantly in the aftermath of 9/11. As the white nationalist torchbearers descended on praying  Jews, protestant ministers and laypeople focused on a peaceful counter-protest the following day in Charlottesville, a fiery hate rang through the hot night air. America needed a steady, calming voice and not one that criticized those praying or defending them, as opposed to the torchbearers. No one but Trump and his white nationalists have said that the counter-protesters caused problems in Charlottesville, except for one or two. Most clergy -- who were terrorized by our president's supporters, chanting in his name and sometimes wearing his infamous red baseball caps -- said that they would not be alive without the counter-protesters, who protected them. Police were in short supply that Friday night.

McGrath didn't have to bring down an airliner that had done a 180-degree turn and was headed for DC when the passengers -- who knew about the other three crashes -- stood up and rushed the terrorists in the cabin and cockpit. These incredible Americans knew they were going to die, but in a moment of gigantic heroism, their only focus was to save the White House, the Washington Monument, Congress -- whatever was the target of that airplane. All they knew was that the plane -- preceded by three others -- was headed straight into the heart of America's democracy. 

Amy McGrath stood tall on September 11 and she has done so again with this campaign video. Like you, Ivanka, Amy also has three children -- two boys and a girl just like you. Unlike you, she is not silent in the face of Charlottesville. McGrath is fierce and she has moral convictions that tower over what we've heard out of the Trump family.  

This is not what America stands for, says Amy, and she is dead-right. We need more than a happy tweet from you, Ivanka. Are you in for America, or are you a Stepford wife and daughter, willing to diplomatically speak -- not against your father, our president -- but in a statement that at least acknowledges your position and disappointment with the escalating situation? I'm pretty sure that I know the answer, but hopefully you will surprise me.  ~ Anne