State Dept. Spox Lobs Softballs To Ivanka In Interview At Packed International Conference

Senior White House adviser and presidential daughter Ivanka Trump was grilled in a hard-hitting interview Saturday at the Doha Forum in Qatar.

Just kidding: She answered softballs lobbed by the State Department spokesperson and former Fox News contributor Morgan Ortagus.

BuzzFeed News covered some of the piercing questions Ortagus asked Trump, such as “What can everyone here that’s representing the private sector do?” and “With all of the successes of the initial launch what are you doing to ensure this lasts much beyond your time in the White House?”

Video from the event shows hundreds of people watching the back-and-forth in a large conference hall.

Ivanka being interviewed by *State Dept PR person*, a former Fox News contributor, at the #DohaForum. Never quite seen anything like it. pic.twitter.com/OVfBHBi5ml

— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) December 14, 2019

The interview focused on the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, an “all of government” women’s economic development initiative Ivanka has promoted for months. MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin reported from Doha that Trump was the only government official attending the forum to be interviewed by a spokesperson for her own government.

It’s not the first time Trump’s gotten a friendly interview about the initiative.

In October, Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran, spoke with Ivanka about the initiative at the Warsaw Process Working Group on Human Rights. According to the State Department, more than 40 delegations from the around the world were present at the working group.

Ortagus, introducing Trump and Hook in October, described Ivanka as “the smartest and most beautiful woman in Washington.”