According to The Daily Beast today, first daughter Ivanka Trump secretly met with Planned Parenthood President Cecil Richards in January. The story does not make clear whether the meeting took place before or after Trump's inauguration, but Ivanka is Trump's most trusted advisor, along with her husband, Jared Kushner, and she's a moving force behind much of the action in his administration. According to the Daily Beast, quote, the purpose of the meeting from Cecil's point of view was to make sure that Ivanka fully understood what Planned Parenthood does, how it is funded, and why it would be a terrible idea for Planned Parenthood to be removed from being able to see Medicaid patients, said Don Lugans, an executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The main thing that Cecil was doing was explaining that the money doesn't actually go to abortions, we get reimbursed the same way a hospital does.

We were clearing up mis about how this works, unquote. Richards now says that Ivanka is part of the problem, since she hasn't openly sounded off on her father's opposition to funding Planned Parenthood. According to Richards, quote, anyone who works in this White House is responsible for addressing why women are in the crosshairs of basically every single policy we've seen in this administration.

It's worth noting that just yesterday, Ivanka told Gail King on CBS this morning that she sounds off against her father's policies all the time, behind closed doors.

I would say not to conflate lack of public denouncement with silence, she explained. So, is Ivanka still stumping for Planned Parenthood behind closed doors? Trump has made clear he's willing to use Planned Parenthood as a cudgel to motivate Republicans, but he also spent months talking about all the non-abortion great work Planned Parenthood does, which accounts for a minute fraction of their revenue. Trump may have shifted his position for politics, but Ivanka probably hasn't. She's a career leftist on a variety of issues, from climate change to abortion to same-sex marriage. Her speech at the Republican National Convention was an ode to government-sponsored childcare. As Stephen Miller of Heat Street pointed out, quote, Ivanka has donated thousands of dollars to prominent Democrat candidates, including Harry Reid, Andrew Cuomo, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Kristen Gillibrand, Gavin Newsom, Chuck Schumer, Corey Booker,

Elliott, Elliott Spitzer, Hillary Clinton's Senate, and 2008 presidential campaign, and just recently

to New Democrats star Senator Kamala Harris. In the interest of fairness, she did donate to McCain

and Romney 2012, but according to sources, contributions to Republicans make up less than 10% of her overall

donations. Ivanka was not even able to vote for her father in the GOP primary, as she did not

switch her party affiliation by the deadline. Ivanka is the person closest to Trump's heart in this

administration, an administration filled with people with little political background, but who compete

to demonstrate their loyalty to

the president. Ivanka will not be trumped in this regard. That means she may have her father's

ear even on issues upon which they disagree. And that is not a good thing. I'm Ben Shapiro. This is

the Ben Shapiro show. So today's an extremely busy news day. We're going to get to Nunez. Devin Nunez has now been

recused. He's recused himself from the Russia investigation on the House Intelligence Committee.

We'll tell you what that means. Steve Bannon is out at the National Security Council.

So a lot of turmoil happening inside the Republican caucus. Plus, President Trump is making

open overtures now to the left, which is not a good thing. But before we get there, we have to say, and we should say, obviously, thank you to our advertisers over at Lyft. So if you are looking for a ride-sharing company that's going to make sure that you're safe and that you ride in a clean car and the driver isn't a creeper, Lyft is the place for you. I know because I use Lyft.

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Okay, so the big news of the day is that Devin Nunes, who's, or Devin Nunes, I guess it's pronounced. This has been a big debate in political circles. How do you pronounce this guy's last name? So Noons, I think, is how it's actually pronounced. Devin Nunes, who is the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, he announced on Thursday, he has recused himself from the committee's investigation into Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 election.

Now, this poses a problem for the Trump administration, because the Trump administration basically

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