First daughter and senior adviser to the president Ivanka Trump lied — and then backtracked — about the fact that her father, President Trump, authorized lethal force at the U.S. southern border in an interview with Good Morning America Wednesday.

“I don’t believe that that’s what he said, but his primary role as commander in chief is to protect the nation’s borders,” she said when asked about the authorization, adding that lethal force “is not, I think, something that anyone’s talking about.”

But, as CNN noted Wednesday, just last week, the president said he has, in fact, “given the OK” to use lethal force on the border, though he said he hopes “they don’t have to” use it.

Pressed about this during her GMA interview, Ivanka Trump said, “So lethal force, under any circumstance, would be the last resort. But he is the commander in chief of the armed forces of this country, so he always has to be able to protect the border…. He’s not talking about innocent asylum seekers.”

.@IvankaTrump on the crisis at the border: "It's devastating to see the images and seeing children put at risk…it makes me angry that we haven't been able to come together as a nation and change our laws." https://t.co/vN9BjW67gR pic.twitter.com/GgyzBsUEHR — Good Morning America (@GMA) November 28, 2018

“Nobody wants to see anyone get hurt,” she added.

Trump’s GMA interview aired just days after federal authorities tear gassed migrants and asylum seekers attempting to cross the border after being turned away illegally at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. Trump said the images from the incident were “devastating” to her.


“I think, like any other person with a heart, it’s devastating to see the images and seeing children put at risk. Running towards the border is heartbreaking, there’s no other way to process it. It also makes me angry and makes me angry that we haven’t been able to come together as a nation and change our laws,” she said.

Trump also discussed her use of personal email for government work during the GMA interview and said she believed there was “no equivalency” between her email use and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state, an issue President Trump made central to his 2016 campaign.

.@IvankaTrump to @DebRobertsABC on her use of personal email vs. Hillary Clinton's: "There just is no equivalency between the two things." https://t.co/yL3oLTXcqd pic.twitter.com/qBiTbw8BdB — Good Morning America (@GMA) November 28, 2018

“All of my emails that relate to any form of government work, which is mainly scheduling and logistics and managing the fact that I have a home life and work life are all part of the public record,” Trump said. “They’re all stored on the White House system. So everything has been preserved, everything’s been archived. There just is no equivalency between the two things.”


She added, “My emails have not been deleted, nor was there anything of substance, nothing confidential that was within them. So, there’s no connection between the two things… People who want to see it as the same [as Hillary Clinton’s emails] see it as the same.”

Trump also said in the interview that aired Wednesday that she does not believe her father is creating a climate of hatred.

.@IvankaTrump to @DebRobertsABC on people saying Pres. Trump is creating a climate for hatred: "I reject that. I think that he is creating policy that is going to lift all Americans.” https://t.co/vN9BjW67gR pic.twitter.com/uaTD2rnGSp — Good Morning America (@GMA) November 28, 2018

“I reject that. I think that he is creating policy that is going to lift all Americans, and that’s what his number one role is,” she said. “But we need to have this dialogue and sometimes the expression of anger and resistance are the moment before you really start to engage in earnest. And we are looking to do that.”