Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner hosted another bipartisan dinner at their Kalorama home Monday evening, a source familiar with the dinner confirmed to CNN Monday.
Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin, Heidi Heitkamp and Claire McCaskill, as well as Republican Sens. Marco Rubio, Mike Lee and Pat Toomey and Treasury Sec. Steve Mnuchin, attended. The topic of the dinner, first reported by Politico, was tax reform.
In a Facebook Live from his Senate office Tuesday, Rubio said he saw “some glimmers of hope” for bipartisan tax reform at the dinner.
“It was a bipartisan dinner, and part of the conversation, a lot of the conversation, centered around tax reform, how we can get to a bipartisan solution on tax reform,” Rubio said.
“And so we talked through some of those components last night, what would it take to get Democrats on board on this issue versus that issue, and a lot of work to be done there, but I did see some glimmers of hope,” Rubio said. “The one thing I think there is some universal support for across the board at this point is the child tax credit increase.”
Speaking on CNN’s “New Day” Tuesday morning, Manchin said Kushner and Trump were “great hosts.”
“We talked with each other, not at each other. Ivanka and Jared were great hosts. They kept — everything was moving in a direction,” Manchin said. “We really got into some serious content, which I think helped all sides find a pathway forward. And we’re hoping we can do that.”
Trump, a senior adviser to her father, President Donald Trump, is currently making a push alongside the White House on tax reform, working to cultivate relationships and build coalitions with Congress. She has met with a wide group of bipartisan lawmakers and advocacy groups in recent weeks to discuss the expansion of the child tax credit.
“Ivanka wants to see an expansion of the child tax credit as it is an essential part of ensuring a middle class tax cut. She is meeting with members of Congress and advocacy groups to discuss possible proposals,” a White House official said last week, adding: “As with other areas of tax reform, the administration has laid out its vision and is now working with the relevant committees who are preparing key specifics.”
Rubio has met with Ivanka Trump multiple times on the topic of tax reform and policies for working families, persuading her to adopt his proposal with Lee to expand the child tax credit.
“After several meetings and discussions with the senator, she threw her support behind the Rubio-Lee child tax credit to ensure tax reform includes meaningful relief for working American families,” Rubio spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cubas told CNN via email.
Though Ivanka Trump also advocated for paid family leave as part of her pro-family campaign trail pitch, a White House official said that that policy “was always intended to be a separate piece of legislation.”
The first daughter is continuing to have meetings on the subject.
Traveling across the country on the campaign trail, Ivanka Trump made pro-family policies a hallmark of her appearances.
“As a mother myself, of three young children, I know how hard it is to work while raising a family. And I also know that I’m far more fortunate than most. American families need relief. Policies that allow women with children to thrive should not be novelties, they should be the norm,” she said during her speech to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
Trump has frequently used dinner party diplomacy to build relationships. Last week, Trump and Kushner hosted Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Sheldon Whitehouse and Dick Durbin, as well as Lee, a Republican, and other White House officials, for a dinner focused on criminal justice reform.
And earlier this year before she formally stepped into her White House role, she hosted two private dinner parties with business executives focusing on women in the workplace. The first working dinner took place before the inauguration at the home of friend Wendi Deng Murdoch; the second at her home.
Future dinners are in the works.
