GOP Rep.: Ivanka Trump Is An Exception, Doesn’t Have To Report To Chief Of Staff

UNITED STATES - JANUARY 16: Lee Zeldin, republican candidate from New York's 1st Congressional District, is interviewed by Roll Call. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call) (CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
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Responding to tweets from first daughter Ivanka Trump about “working alongside” newly sworn-in Chief of Staff John Kelly, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) said he doesn’t think Ivanka Trump should have to work through Kelly to access her father.

“If anyone who is working in the White House, other than the President of the United States, ideally would be reporting to the chief of staff,” Zeldin said, appearing on MSNBC Tuesday. “The chief of staff would be reporting to the President of the United States. I would imagine there are a few different people, obviously Ivanka included, who are going to continue to have conversations and access to the President. That can still work. It’s just really important to have good communication with the chief of staff, because you don’t want things going in two different directions.”

He went on to praise Ivanka Trump, saying he is “super impressed” with her “intellect and class” and the work she’s done to try to get paid family leave included in budget discussions in Congress.

He said he likes having the first daughter and her husband Jared Kushner in the White House, despite the turmoil Kushner has caused by failing to disclose meetings he’s held with foreign officials. Kushner attended a June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr., then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and a Kremlin-linked lawyer amid promises of damaging information about Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to aid the Trump campaign.

Zeldin said he thinks Ivanka Trump could “in her own right” be a “great United States senator if she wanted to be.”

When pressed about what qualifies her for elected office, he said she is “super smart and highly capable” and cited her experience in business and “ability to understand our tax code” as rationale.

When asked about the fact that none of Ivanka Trump’s products are made in the U.S., he said she’s also a “great mom” and “a great wife.”

“She has great education. She has great ideas on important issues that help families, but I would say for anyone who is running for office, the President proved this, there is no one size fits all cookie-cutter way to become President of the United States.”

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