Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka delivered her highly anticipated speech Thursday night before the Republican National Convention. She used her speech to briefly push the gender pay gap myth and later that night CNN commentator, and Black Lives Matter supporter, Bakari Sellers tried to wield it against her father. “What she did do was, she gave a speech that was Hillary Clinton's speech,” he stated, “Donald Trump on his campaign pays his female staffers a third less than his men.”
Sellers continued, saying, “And I just think that is so ironic.”
But CNN commentator, and Trump supporter, Kayleigh McEnany didn’t stand for it. “No, he's comparing apples and Oranges,” she noted, “Because there are men in executive positions. They do get paid more than the women.”
Sellers didn’t seem like he understood the men versus women pay comparison was skewed, because men occupied more of the higher paying positions within the campaign. But that didn’t stop him from championing Hillary Clinton as the role model, “But Hillary Clinton pays them the same.”
McEnany reminded Sellers that Clinton has her own history of paying men more than women “But the foundation she’s in— has and the White House she worked in pays men more than women,” she said. She also said that they can go back and forth on the issue because the same math applies.
Yet Sellers kept insisting and saying Ivanka could fix it. “So, if she's [Ivanka] on the campaign and she believes in equal pay for equal work, she should take that back to the campaign,” he argued. He made it seem as though it was a common practice for Trump.
He counterpart wanted to give him a hand in understanding Trump:
I want to help you out cause you clearly missed some really big facts. Like the fact that the Trump organization has more female executives than the male executives. Maybe you tuned out during that part of the speech.
Transcript below:
CNN
CNN Tonight with Don Lemon
July 22, 2016
1:33:29 PM EasternBAKARI SELLERS: I don't think she [Ivanka] can erase a lot of the damage that Donald Trump did with his language and verbiage. The same type of using his own words against him that Hillary Clinton has already put a hundred million dollars on TV with. But that doesn’t take away what Ivanks Trump did tonight. She was very, very good. She was the highlight. She was— All the children did well. Ivanka was kind of like she— It kept building up, building up, building up each child got better. I think Barron probably would have been the only one on stage that could unseat Ivanka.
But what she did do was, she gave a speech that was Hillary Clinton's speech. She invoked Lilly Ledbetter, she invoked equal pay for equal work. She talked about making sure you can care— you can pay for day care while you're going to work. But the most ironic thing about that, which is so Trump-ish, is that Donald Trump on his campaign pays his female staffers a third less than his men. And I just think that is so ironic.
DON LEMON: Do you know that for sure?
KAYLEIGH MCENANY: No, he's comparing apples and Oranges. Because there are men in executive positions. They do get paid more than the women.
SELLER: But—
MCENANY: She [Ivanka] articulated that throughout his whole bis—
SELLERS: But Hillary Clinton pays them the same.
MCENANY: No, no, no, no, no.
SELLERS: Yes she does.
MCENANY: Not in the Clinton Foundation. We can go down this tit for tat road—
SELLERS: Nah, we’re talking about the campaign.
MCENANY: Ok so, we don’t want to talk about—
SELLERS: So, if she's [Ivanka] on the campaign and she believes in equal pay for equal work, she should take that back to the campaign.
MCENANY: I want to help you out cause you clearly missed some really big facts. Like the fact that the Trump organization has more female executives than the male executives. Maybe you tuned out during that part of the speech.
SELLERS: We’re talking about the campaign though. That's not apples and Oranges. So the campaign that she's [Ivanka] on, she can go back to the campaign and say that, “women deserve equal pay for equal work.
MCENANY: But the foundation she’s in—
SELLERS: The campaign. Does that matter?
MCENANY: — has and the White House she worked in pays men more than women.
SELLERS: Does the campaign matter?
MCENANY: Does the White House matter? Does the foundation matter?
LEMON: Now we see were this is going to go this evening.
