WASHINGTON — Key figures on both sides of an ethics controversy surrounding one of President Trump’s advisers, Ivanka Trump’s brand and Nordstrom, took to the political shows Sunday, while a “Saturday Night Live” skit skewering it and Trump’s chief spokesman sent the audience into a frenzy.
The fallout from the controversy ensnaring Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, over comments she made promoting Ivanka Trump’s brand on television triggered calls for an ethics investigation and was a key topic on a Sunday political show.
Conway was widely criticized after she endorsed Ivanka Trump’s fashion line on “Fox & Friends” last week, urging consumers to buy the merchandise at other stores or online after Nordstrom dropped the line. Her comments followed a tweet from President Trump lashing out at Nordstrom for dropping his daughter’s brand.
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Nordstrom defended its actions last week, stating the company dropped the brand because sales had “steadily declined” in the second half of last year.
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George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC’s “This Week,” grilled Stephen Miller, White House senior policy adviser, about Conway’s promotion of the Ivanka Trump brand. Stephanopoulos pointed to a rebuke from a powerful Republican committee chairman in the House.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said in a tweet that what Conway did was “wrong, wrong, wrong,” and also told reporters that she crossed the line.
Chaffetz joined Rep. Elijah Cummings (D., Md.), the ranking democrat on the committee, in writing a letter to the head of the Office of Government Ethics, asking for a review and disciplinary action if warranted.
“Will the president accept that recommendation?” Stephanopoulos asked Miller on his show Sunday.
“I think people are blowing this thing way out of proportion,” Miller said. “What you have is a situation where you have the President of the United States sticking up for a member of his family and you have a counselor to the president who was making a light-hearted comment in defense of someone who had been treated very unfairly.”
While Miller went on to blame the media for “taking it to a level it does not merit,” Stephanopoulos shot back that it was the Republican chair on the House Oversight Committee who said Conway crossed the line.
“On that point because it gets to a deeper issue, Sean Spicer from the podium said the decision from Nordstrom to pull those products of Ivanka Trump was a direct attack on the president’s policies,” Stephanopolous said. “Sears and Kmart this week have decided to pull Mr. Trump’s home furnishings from their web sites. Is that a direct attack on the president’s policies as well?
Miller refused to comment on Sears and Kmart but said he stood by Spicer’s remarks and repeated that Conway’s remarks had been “light-hearted and flippant” and were blown out of proportion.
Cummings said later on the same show that Conway’s endorsement of Ivanka Trump’s brand was a “textbook case of violation of the law.”
“You cannot go out there as an employee of the government and advertise for Ivanka Trump or anybody else’s products,” Cummings said. “Anybody else would be subject to a minimum of a reprimand or they could literally lose their job over this in any other department.”
“Saturday Night Live” even seized on the controversy.
Actress Melissa McCarthy’s impersonation of White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on SNL, mocking the Trump-Nordstrom controversy, took things from the political to the pop-culture realm.
Wearing an oversized suit, McCarthy channeled Spicer’s gruff, often aggressive style with the media in the White House daily briefing room. Holding a mock press conference, McCarthy pointed to Nordstrom’s decision to drop the fashion brand.
“Nordstrom decided to stop selling Ivanka Trump’s line of clothing and accessories. OK? And that’s Nordstrom’s loss because these are high, high-quality products,” McCarthy said.
“In fact I’m wearing one of her bangles,” she said, pushing up her shirt sleeve to show the accessory. “It’s beautiful. It’s shimmery. It’s elegant and it’s $39.99 and it unbelievable,” she said as a 1-800 number to purchase the bangle flashed on the screen. “Don’t even get me started on her shoes,” she added swinging her leg up on the podium to show off a printed pump. “These babies are a real head-turner.”
The White House press office did not respond to a request for comment on the “Saturday Night Live” skit.