Ivanka Trump questions her father's gun proposal
Ivanka Trump has said that she doesn't know whether arming teachers with concealed weapons, as her father advocates, would makes schools safer and said the idea needs further discussion.
President Donald Trump's daughter, who serves as a senior adviser in the White House and is in South Korea, where she attended the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics, was asked by NBC News if arming teachers would make children safer.
"To be honest I don't know," she said. "Obviously there would have to be an incredibly high standard for who would be able to bear arms in our school. But I think that there is no one solution to creating safety.
In the wake of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, President Donald Trump has repeatedly pressed the case for arming about 20 per cent of teachers and other school personnel, arguing that it would be a major deterrent to gunmen like the one who killed 17 people in South Florida.
Ivanka Trump was seated in front of Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party Central Committee., during the Winter Olympics closing ceremony.
Photo: APIn a tweet on Sunday, he called the idea "a big & very inexpensive deterrent" and said it should be left to the states to decide whether to pursue the strategy.
Ivanka Trump told NBC: "I think that having a teacher who is armed, who cares deeply about her students or his students, and who is capable and qualified to bear arms is not a bad idea, but it's an idea that needs to be discussed."
In the same interview, she said she believes her father's denials of sexual misconduct.
Asked if she believed women who have accused her father of sexual misconduct, she called it a "pretty inappropriate question to ask a daughter".
“I think it’s a pretty inappropriate question to ask a daughter if she believes the accusers of her father when he’s affirmatively stated that there’s no truth to it. I don't think that's a question you would ask many other daughters," she said.
"I believe my father, I know my father. I think I have that right as a daughter, to believe my father."
The President has been accused of inappropriate behaviour by more than a dozen women. He denies those allegations.
During her trip through Asia, Ivanka Trump met with South Korea's leader. At the Winter Olympics closing ceremony she was seated a metre away from Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party Central Committee.
Her father has previously threatened to destroy the entire country and its leader Kim Jong-un.
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