Sanders: Media attacks on Ivanka Trump are ‘shameful’

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday slammed the media’s coverage of Ivanka Trump, saying she has been treated unfairly.

“I frankly, I think it’s shameful the way that she’s been treated,” Sanders said during an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt.

“If she didn’t have the same last name, they would be celebrating her,” she said. “They would be praising her. They would be thanking God that she is sitting in a position that she is to influence policy and help women across this country.

“And instead, they attack her, they shame her, and they belittle her. I think it’s very shameful, and I think it’s sad because she’s such a good advocate for so many women. And for them to attack her, I think, is just really disheartening.”

Sanders rattled off the work that Ivanka Trump has been doing in the White House.

“She’s done a great job working with the World Bank, through helping female entrepreneurs across the globe. They announced that that initiative was fully operational as of this week,” she added.

“I think being able to talk about those things, being able to highlight actual policy successes, is the best way to help show what she’s doing and what a success story she has.”

Ivanka Trump was named senior adviser to the president in March. Her husband, former magazine publisher Jared Kushner, shares the same title in the administration. 

The presence of President Trump’s daughter in the White House has been a source of controversy, with some warning of potential conflicts of interest.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday that Ivanka Trump should not be part of the World Bank’s Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative due to her clothing brand.

“I believe it would not be appropriate for her to serve as a public advocate for the fund,” Cardin wrote in the letter to Mnuchin. 

“As long as Ms. Trump continues to benefit financially from a brand that bears her name, her involvement with [the initiative] creates the potential for conflicts of interest that could stand in the way of achieving the fund’s goals.”

Ivanka Trump handed off management of the clothing line when she came to the White House, but has not divested from the business, as critics have urged her to do.