Transcript

(upbeat music)

Jared and Ivanka thought that they were going to be

ushered in and accepted with open arms.

And they have faced scrutiny and criticism at every turn,

they have been, blamed for things

that the president has done, rightly or wrongly.

They have been laughed at for trying to

exert their influence over the president.

They have been criticized for not stopping

some of the more controversial decisions.

And so on both ends of the spectrum,

I think it's been a pretty disappointing year.

(percussion beats)

From all the people who I've spoken with who know

Jared and Ivanka well, this has been

a terrible thing for them to watch.

Because they're witnessing two individuals,

who have spent much of their young adult lives,

branding themselves successfully,

as very ambitious, very put together,

well-mannered people with long futures ahead of them.

And now what they're watching is

sort of like a train wreck in slow motion.

(moderate pop music)

Until the 2016 Presidential Election,

Jared and Ivanka were true blue Democrats.

They hosted fundraisers for Cory Booker,

they were registered as independents.

These are not the kinds of people,

who you think would associate with a Steve Bannon

or Steven Miller.

(moderate pop music)

What has been interesting to watch

is that you may be able to take

Jared and Ivanka out of New York,

but you can't necessarily take

New York out of Jared and Ivanka.

So even though, they moved to DC

and are working in this administration,

they've still kept some of their rich kid ways.

And in recent months, you see them doing

less and less extravagant things.

They have been continuing to socialize

with people who they know support their viewpoints.

So, for example, Ivanka Trump last month

decided to go to a Fox News party hosted by Rupert Murdoch,

her old pal, but she did not go to

the Metropolitan Museum of Art Halloween Party

with people who maybe weren't going to be

as accepting of her as the people at the Fox News Party.

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From people I know who have spoken with the couple,

who know the couple well, it is certainly weighing on them.

I spoke to three people who have spoken with Jared Kushner

over the last couple of weeks and they said,

they're making it very clear that they're focused

on what's going to happen in 2018

and what the priorities for the adminsitration are.

But once they get through the pleasantries of that,

the conversation typically turns to the investigation.

And he'll say something like, So do you think

this investigation's gonna turn anything up

or do you think it's going to go away?

And the people who know him well,

know him well enough to know that that's really him saying,

I'm sweating a little bit here.

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Jared and Ivanka are the most masterful compartmentalizers

that perhaps ever walked planet Earth.

They are able to go through a world of shit and still able

to function on a day to day level in the White House.

Ivanka's been on Capitol Hill all week pushing tax reform.

Her husband was in Saudi Arabia last month,

he's in Asia with the president this week.

And from everything I know from the sources I've spoken to

they're peeing in their pants

about this Russia investigation.

And so they're able to compartmentalize

all those individual things.

And a lot of that compartmentalizing

has to do with the fact, they don't want to portray

an image of anything ever being

anything but rosy and perfect for them.

And that's what they're so good at doing.

Is pushing the message that everything's okay.

It's like a duck on the water,

where on the surface everything may look calm,

but underwater they're legs are paddling.