Former President Donald J. Trump, who was infamous for isolating or dismissing staff workers who disagreed with him while in office, identified a new target on Friday: his elder daughter. Ivanka.
Mr. Trump used his social media website the morning after the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack played recorded video testimony of his daughter, Ivanka Trump, at a prime-time public hearing, to distance himself from what she had said and say she was “checked out” during the final days of his administration.
Ms. Trump testified that a statement by William P. Barr, the attorney general at the time, on Dec. 1, 2020, that there was no widespread fraud that had tainted the election’s outcome and influenced her decision. She said she respected Mr. Barr and “accepted what he was saying” during her testimony.
“Ivanka Trump was not involved in looking at, or studying, Election results,” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media website, Truth Social, in one of eight messages he posted there in response to the hearing. “She had long since checked out and was, in my opinion, only trying to be respectful to Bill Barr and his position as Attorney General (he sucked!).”
Ms. Trump served in the White House as a senior adviser and remained in the administration until the end. Her coworkers recall her pressing White House staff employees to “fight” on election night, even though it was evident that her father would most certainly lose. Her husband, Jared Kushner, a key White House adviser, attended multiple meetings with a variety of political and West Wing aides, as well as lawyers like Rudolph W. Giuliani, to discuss post-election strategy.
Mr. Trump slammed the hearing, which was the first in a series of hearings convened by the House committee this month, by pushing back on his daughter’s remarks.
Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and the panel’s vice chairwoman, testified that he denied responding positively to “Hang Mike Pence!” chants directed at the vice president by some of the rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, an account shared during the hearing by Representative Liz Cheney.
“I NEVER said, or even thought of saying, ‘Hang Mike Pence,’” Mr. Trump wrote on the social media site. “This is either a made-up story by somebody looking to become a star or FAKE NEWS!”
President Trump: “I NEVER said, or even thought of saying, ‘Hang Mike Pence.’” pic.twitter.com/kMQCdAgTEQ
— RSBN 🇺🇸 (@RSBNetwork) June 10, 2022
Mr. Trump responded to the chanting by stating that “maybe our folks have the correct concept” and that Mr. Pence “deserves it,” according to Ms. Cheney, who did not claim he used those words.
Mr. Trump referred to the committee as a “totally partisan, POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!” And in two other posts, he attacked Mr. Barr, calling him a “coward,” “weak and frightened,” “stupid” and “scared stiff of being impeached.”
