It was an interesting choice for a television interview considering King would clearly be hostile. She partied with Oprah and the Obamas in the White House after President Obama's first inauguration. Need one question her political leanings?
It should have come as no surprise when King asked whether Ivanka was "complicit" in her father's administration, as if President Trump's presidency should be considered illegal and morally bankrupt.
King was borrowing from a nasty "Saturday Night Live" skit that went viral on the left, of a fake Ivanka Trump perfume ad with the tagline "Complicit: the fragrance for the woman who could stop all of this but won't."
The president's daughter responded like a politician, saying, "If being complicit means wanting to be a force for good and wanting to make a positive impact, then I'm complicit."
Hours later, CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert pulled out a dictionary and read the illegal/wrongdoing definition of "complicit" and mocked Trump, saying her response was like saying, "If being a Nazi means fighting for civil rights, then yeah, I'm a huge Nazi!"
Mocking the quote where Trump's lawyer said she would be her father's "eyes and ears" in the White House, feminist TBS host Samantha Bee cracked that the first daughter will be "spending a lot of time staring at her own boobies."
King channeled all the liberal outrage that Trump should be like a younger version of Hillary Clinton inside the White House, stopping everything that liberals don't like. She cited anonymous "critics" -- i.e., the people she'd just spoken with down the hall at the water cooler -- bemoaning her failure to foil the conservatives.
She said: "You also talk about the critics, and you have a couple who say, 'Why isn't Ivanka speaking out? Where is she on Planned Parenthood? Where is she on gay rights? Where is she on the rights of women? Where is she on climate change?' And it's like you're being held personally accountable for not speaking up. What do you say to your critics?"
Trump naturally answered that just because she's not denouncing her father in public doesn't mean she can't wield her liberal influence inside the family. But obviously, the government is not moving in the direction of "New York values" right now, so that clearly wasn't good enough.
Now compare: The day before CBS launched into Trump, it offered a typically fawning interview to Chelsea Clinton. No one has ever asked Chelsea Dearest whether she was "complicit" in her father's sexual offenses, or "complicit" in her family's corrupt foundation, even though she's a vice chair. Put the emphasis on "vice."
Instead, America witnessed all the mandatory mewling over her wonderfulness. Will she run for president? King couldn't curb her enthusiasm. She said: "Is there anybody else in the Clinton household thinking about running? And by anybody, I mean you. You could take your book on the road while you're campaigning with 'Get Informed, Get Inspired, Get Going.' I feel like deja vu with your mom all over again. Are you running? Are you running? Are you running?"
Earth to CBS: The country just said no to a Clinton dynasty.
Co-host Norah O'Donnell asked: "What do you think about what Russia did during the campaign? ... Do you think they had any role in your mother's defeat -- Russian influence?" They simply will not accept that their candidate lost to him because America didn't want her.
The double standard on first daughters and their parents never ends. One gets powder puffs and cotton candy. The other gets a sledgehammer.
One hopes there will be a learning moment here for Ivanka Trump. Sometimes the best response to a media request is to just say no.
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