When your father is the most powerful man in the world, and he’s not exactly jumping at the chance to stop another mass shooting in any meaningful way, what’s a daughter to do? Well, you get on the phone to speak to less powerful people and ask them how keen they are to fix the country’s mass shooting problem themselves!
According to Axios on Tuesday, Ivanka Trump has been “quietly” calling up lawmakers in the week and a half since the El Paso, TX, and Dayton, OH, mass shootings that killed 31 people, inquiring about their “openness” on moving forward with gun legislation.
Among those she reportedly phoned were Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin—who was on vacation in Hawaii—for an update on the background checks bill that he first proposed with Republican Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey in 2013 after the Sandy Hook shooting.
“She called Manchin and said she was trying to get a sense of what bills are out there,” an aide for Manchin told Axios. “She had him explain how they drafted the bill, where it stands and what changes needed to be made in order for it to pass.”
A nice little civics lesson from a congressman vacationing in Hawaii? Sure! But any firm proof that the Trump administration is ready to do anything substantial on gun violence or that Ivanka is directly lobbying her father? No dice! Axios reported the first daughter didn’t go so far as to “signal a White House position” on the issue.
She has also been doing some posting about gun laws, which is all fine and dandy:
But without any additional work—more than President Trump saying he thinks the NRA will come around on expanding background checks—this Ivanka tidbit is just the latest anonymous attempt to help boost rehabilitate her reputation without really doing anything.