Ivanka Trump deflected a question Wednesday about her father’s claims that the November election will be rigged by changing the subject to deny reports that the family business has suffered because of his presidential campaign.
During her interview on stage at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, Trump was asked about her father’s claims that election will be rigged against him. She answered by taking a jab at the media.
“I will tell you that the media has been vicious and there’s a lot of business people in the room,” she said. “We’ve had articles written about us by the business press where we say, hmm, that wasn’t exactly fair, the fact check, there’s a few things off but this has been a different level.”
Trump went on to take issue with a New York Times article that made the claim that Trump businesses was suffering because of the election. She said that was an example of a bias she’s only recently noticed.
“It’s demoralizing when you’re working very hard and you have teams working tremendously hard to read these things,” she said. “So I think the bias is very, very real and I don’t think I would have said this to you even a year ago but I’m seen it too many times. It’s tremendous.”
Later in the speech, however, Trump said that her father will accept the outcome of the election no matter what happens.
“He’ll either win or he won’t win and I believe he’ll accept the outcome either way,” she said.
The rest of Trump’s interview did not run into controversial territory, but a surprising meeting backstage lit Twitter on fire. Trump was snapped backstage talking to Anita Hill, who famously testified before the U.S. Senate that Clarence Thomas sexually harassed her during the time he was being confirmed to the Supreme Court. Hill had spoken just before Trump at the event, and it was not clear what they discussed backstage.
Ivanka Trump and Anita Hill backstage at #FortuneMPW @foxnewspolitics pic.twitter.com/EqMCJRfv1m
— Nina Easton (@NinaEaston) October 19, 2016
Watch the clip below via CNN:
Ivanka Trump on Donald’s rigged election claim: “The media has been vicious” https://t.co/6OZtrfIwim #FortuneMPW https://t.co/UIEwwke5hz
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 19, 2016
This post has been updated.