Ivanka Trump has been on the receiving end of criticism from liberals and organizations like Planned Parenthood for failing to stop what they see as the anti-women policies of her father’s administration. Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards has called her silence “deafening,” and actress Scarlett Johansson has publicly ridiculed her for saying in an interview with CBS News that she prefers to disagree with her father privately.
But there is one woman among the ranks of the Democratic Party who won’t rule out the possibility of collaboration with the First Daughter —Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff, Tina Tchen.
“I wouldn’t say I’m never gonna work with her in the White House just because she’s Ivanka Trump” Tchen said on Politico’s Women Rule podcast. “I think you have to really hold them to what their rhetoric is.”
Ivanka Trump, who recently joined the White House officially as an assistant to the President, has said she wants to advocate for the economic empowerment of women, garnering criticism from people deeming it hypocritical that she joined the Trump Administration.
READ MORE Actions Speak Louder Than Words.’ Ivanka Trump Is Walking a Fine Line on Women’s Issues
Tchen, who also served as Executive Director for the White House Council on Women and Girls in the White House, praised the current Administration for its willingness to talk about women’s empowerment, paid leave and affordable childcare, issues Ivanka Trump has said she she is passionate about. But Tchen also emphasized vigilance in monitoring the substance of the policies. Tchen has never met Ivanka Trump, she said, but is “enormously sympathetic” to family members of the President given her time in the Obama White House.
“I’ll give her credit, she and Jared, apparently, for taking seriously the opportunity and responsibility they have for serving the American public even if they weren’t elected,” she said.