MSNBC Host Asks Whether Melania and Ivanka Are 'Dead Inside'
MSNBC host Nicholle Wallace questioned on Thursday whether first lady Melania Trump and first daughter Ivanka Trump are “dead inside” based on their ability to function in such close proximity to President Donald Trump.
Wallace made the remark while leading a panel discussion about former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s view, stated earlier this week, that Melania Trump believes her husband’s denial of having a sexual liaison with adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2006.
“I respect women — beautiful women and women with value — but a woman who sells her body for sexual exploitation, I don’t respect,” Giuliani said concerning Daniels at an event on Wednesday in Tel Aviv, apparently seeking to cast doubt on her credibility.
Wallace — who served as White House communications director under George W. Bush and a top communications adviser on the 2008 McCain presidential campaign — questioned how the first lady and Ivanka Trump would react to Giuliani’s comments.
“What do they do on a day like today?” the MSNBC personality asked. “Are they just the most stoic human beings, are they numb, are they dead inside, are they paid off?”
“Yes, yes and yes,” Vanity Fair reporter Emily Jane Fox replied, saying that the women closest to the president have a “distorted image” of him.
“The president has incredibly sexist, misogynistic views about how he treats women in general, we’ve heard the way that he talks about women, calling them dogs and pigs, talking about grabbing them by their genitals,” she said.
The latter was a reference to the infamous 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape that surfaced during the closing weeks of the presidential campaign in October 2016.
“Ivanka Trump is the most masterful compartmentalizer that America has maybe ever seen,” Fox further contended. “She is able to separate those things in a way that you and I probably can’t understand.”
Stephanie Grisham, Melania Trump’s communications director, stated on Thursday that Giuliani would not be in a position to know how the first lady feels about Daniels’ allegation.
“I don’t believe Mrs. Trump has ever discussed her thoughts on anything with Mr. Giuliani,” Grisham said, according to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.
Yikes. I asked @FLOTUS spokeswoman @StephGrisham45 about Giuliani saying that she believes her husband re Stormy Daniels. Response: “I don't believe Mrs. Trump has ever discussed her thoughts on anything with Mr. Giuliani.”
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 7, 2018
CNN followed up with Giuliani seeking a response to Grisham’s statement regarding the first lady not talking to him about Daniels.
“I don’t regret saying it because I believe it,” he said.
Giuliani added, “Yes I believe that she (the first lady) knows him well enough to know this one is — what’s the word, fakakta?” Fakakta is Yiddish for ridiculous.
On Wednesday, President Trump took the media to task for its coverage of his wife following her kidney surgery last month.
“The Fake News Media has been so unfair, and vicious, to my wife and our great First Lady, Melania,” Trump tweeted.
The Fake News Media has been so unfair, and vicious, to my wife and our great First Lady, Melania. During her recovery from surgery they reported everything from near death, to facelift, to left the W.H. (and me) for N.Y. or Virginia, to abuse. All Fake, she is doing really well!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6, 2018
“During her recovery from surgery they reported everything from near death, to facelift, to left the W.H. (and me) for N.Y. or Virginia, to abuse. All Fake, she is doing really well!”
The president revealed on Friday that the reason his wife is not accompanying him to the G7 Summit in Quebec or the meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un early next week in Singapore is because of her surgery.
Trump: Melania wanted to go on my trip abroad but she can't fly for one month after surgery pic.twitter.com/kxlTdT3TcB
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) June 8, 2018
“And she wanted to go. Can’t fly for one month. The doctors say. She had a big operation. That was a … close to a four-hour operation. And she’s doing great. Right there,” Trump said, pointing up at the White House.
He added: “And you know what? She is a great first lady.”
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