Dear Commons Community,

Ivanka Trump said earlier this week that she was surprised by the “level of viciousness” directed by the media at her father. In an interview Monday on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,”  Ivanaka said the machinations of Washington still amaze her.

“It is hard and there is a level of viciousness that I was not expecting. I was not expecting the intensity of this experience,” the 35-year-old said. “But this isn’t supposed to be easy.

“Some of the distractions and some of the ferocity, I was a little blindsided by on a personal level,” she added. “But for me, I’m trying to keep my head down, not listen to the noise and just work really hard to make a positive impact in the lives of many people.”

The media’s response to Ivanka’s comments were quick and unapologetic bordering on “give me a break.”  Here is an example:

The Washington Post deadpanned: “Irony is dead.”

“President Donald Trump conducted one of the most vicious presidential campaigns in recent history. Trump called women “pigs,” Mexican immigrants “rapists,” and Meryl Streep a “loser.” He mocked a disabled reporter and urged people at his rallies to “knock the crap” out of protesters.  

This “seems to be a talking point for the White House now. And it is ridiculous,” wrote Aaron Blake in The Fix.  “Not because politics in Washington isn’t vicious — it certainly can be and is — but because Ivanka and Eric Trump’s father’s political rise was marked by probably the nastiest and most bare-knuckled brand of public campaigning that we’ve seen in modern history.”

One of the most stinging criticisms of Ivanka’s lament came from John Podhoretz, columnist  in the usually Trump-friendly New York Post, who called the first daughter a “filthy liar” in a tweet for saying she was shocked by ugly attacks in politics.

Only someone living in an alternate universe would be so unaware of the ugliness that her father spews throughout the world.

Tony