Can Ivanka Trump be ‘complicit’ if she’s confused about what it means? Many say ‘yes’

Gayle King’s exclusive “CBS This Morning” interview with Ivanka Trump on Wednesday was remarkable — or unremarkable, depending on your point of view — for several reasons.

First, as many reporters have noted, the segment was Trump’s first public interview since Inauguration Day and her acceptance of an unpaid, unprecedented position as an “assistant to the president” — a move she was widely criticized for after stating previously that she was going to be a “daughter” and politically removed from her father’s administration.

Second, despite King’s pointed questions about her and her husband’s role in the White House, her questionable involvement with the Ivanka Trump brand, her stances on women’s rights, climate change and LGBT rights (and her public silence on these issues), the first daughter offered vague and unconvincing answers.

Trump’s silence on particular issues has lead many to question her role as an advocate in the White House. As Vanity Fair’s Emily Jane Fox asked, “Is she really sharing her opinions behind the scenes, even if she disagrees, as she has suggested? And if she is, and he is not listening, does she really occupy a valuable place in his ear?” Her silence has prompted some to label her as “complicit” to President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Perhaps the most interesting (and amusing) part of Wednesday’s interview was Ivanka’s response to these accusations of complicity.

King, addressing last month’s Saturday Night Live sketch and a long list of thinkpieces written about Ivanka Trump’s faux-feminism, asked, “I’ve read articles saying you are complicit — that Jared and Ivanka are complicit in what is happening to the White House. Can you just weigh in on how you feel about that?”

Ivanka responded, “If being complicit is wanting to be a force of good and to make a positive impact, then I’m complicit.”

She then followed her statement with, “I don’t know what it means to be complicit. But you know, I hope time will prove that I have done a good job and, much more importantly, that my father’s administration is the success I know it will be.”

Ivanka’s assertion of her complicity, followed by her confusion about what “complicit” meant, ignited a strong response online. Does Trump actually know what “complicit” means? Was it a minor slip-up? Or is this a case of an “alternative definition”?

Dictionary company Merriam-Webster jumped on Twitter to help Trump out, noting also that there was an uptick in searches for “complicit” shortly after her interview.

Correcting Ivanka’s assertion that being “complicit” is to be a “force of good,” the dictionary publisher — which also schooled Kellyanne Conway on definitions of “fact” and “feminism” earlier this year — posted a simple definition that read: “helping to commit a crime or do wrong in some way.”

Others also jumped on Twitter to answer Trump’s question.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, addressed Ivanka’s comments during a press conference on Wednesday, defining “complicit” as “not acting in the interest of the American people.”

This isn’t the first time that Ivanka Trump has been accused of complicity in President Trump’s administration. Last month’s “Saturday Night Live” sketch featured Ivanka Trump, played by Scarlett Johansson, as the face of a fictional new fragrance called “Complicit.”

The satirical ad went viral after it aired and also caused a surge in searches for “complicit” on Merriam-Webster’s website.

At Thursday’s Tina Brown’s Women in the World Summit in New York City, Scarlett Johansson — who is embroiled in her own controversy for her starring role in ‘Ghost in the Shell’ — criticized Trump’s statements during her interview with Gayle King, calling the exchange “disappointing.”

“If you take a job as a public advocate, then you must advocate publicly,” Johansson said. “You can’t have it both ways.”

Johansson was particularly stumped by Trump’s comments during Wednesday’s interview where she said that she wouldn’t be publicly denouncing her father’s policy issues on social media and would be discussing these issues “quietly and directly and candidly.” Trump said, “I think most of the impact I have, over time most people will not actually know about.”

Johansson fired back, “It’s such an old-fashioned concept. Powerful women often get concerned with this idea that they’re going to be seen in this unforgiving light. Screw that. It’s so old-fashioned ... it’s so uninspired and actually really cowardly. And I was so disappointed by that interview she gave yesterday.”

Could Trump be an effective advocate behind closed doors? Is being a quiet, direct and candid advocate an effective tool for change in the social media age?

Comedian Samantha Bee didn’t buy it. She noted, during her program “Full Frontal”, that while Trump has branded herself as an advocate for the “economic empowerment of women,” the LGBT community and the environment, she wasn’t able to prevent President Donald Trump’s pull back on Obama-era workplace protections for women and his executive order rescinding previous laws curbing climate change. “Meeting with Leo DiCaprio is not a sign that you care about climate change," Bee quipped. “It’s a sign that you were a teenager in the 90s.”

On Thursday, Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, sharply criticized Ivanka Trump’s silence at the Women in the World Summit in New York City, stating that “anyone who works in this White House is responsible for addressing why women are in the cross hairs of basically every single policy we've seen in this administration.”

Richards' statement comes on the heels of a report by Politico’s Annie Karnie, which revealed that in the weeks after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Ivanka Trump had “quietly met” with Richards and others leaders in the progressive women’s movement, such as Marcia Greenberger, co-president the National Women's Law Center, and Judy Lichtman, senior adviser to the National Partnership for Women and Family.

Do you think Ivanka Trump’s public silence makes her “complicit”? Should she be more vocal? Let us know.

Twitter: @anthonyberteaux