Ivanka Trump Calls BuzzFeed CEO’s “Mulatto Cock” Claim a “Total Lie”

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti called out Ivanka Trump over her response Wednesday morning to father Donald Trump’s lewd comments, in which she called the words recorded on the resurfaced tape “jarring.” 

In a tweet not long after Ivanka Trump’s public appearance, Peretti wrote, “Surprised Ivanka would be shocked by lewd language. I met her once & she casually said: ‘I’ve never seen a mulatto cock, but I’d like to!'” 

Surprised Ivanka would be shocked by lewd language. I met her once & she casually said: “I’ve never seen a mulatto cock, but I’d like to!” https://t.co/WrgCoM0MGK

— Jonah Peretti (@peretti) October 19, 2016

Ivanka Trump, who was speaking at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women summit, was responding to a question about whether she was offended by the leaked tape of her father boasting about trying to kiss and grab women without their consent. “That’s not language consistent with any conversation I’ve ever had with him, certainly, or any conversation I’ve overheard,” she told the crowd and live-streaming audience. During the 20-minute interview, Ivanka also said that her father would accept the outcome of the 2016 presidential election regardless of whether he wins or loses. 

Peretti’s tweet came a couple of hours later. When asked for comment, a BuzzFeed spokeswoman pointed The Hollywood Reporter to an interview that Peretti gave to BuzzFeed News. In that interview, Peretti said he met Ivanka at Manhattan dive bar Tropical 128 between eight and 10 years ago with a group of about five other people. 

“She was saying how she first said she had never seen an uncircumcised cock and then she said, ‘I’ve never seen a mulatto cock. There’s lots of cocks I’ve never seen,’ or something like that,” Peretti told the BuzzFeed reporter. 

He added: “Of course, it was memorable just because of the use of the lewd language and racist language.” Peretti said he decided to share the story on Twitter because “I read the article and it felt like that experience was relevant.” 

On Wednesday afternoon, only hours ahead of the third and final presidential debate, Ivanka shot down the story in a statement to THR: “I am not sure if this was meant to be a joke, but in case there is any ambiguity, this is a complete and total lie.”

A spokesman for Donald Trump’s campaign, Jason Miller, also responded via email to BuzzFeed. “What a little man and a disgraceful liar to smear Ivanka Trump like this,” reads the statement published by BuzzFeed. “It shows just how far the media will go to tear down Mr. Trump’s family, and we demand an apology.”

BuzzFeed, meanwhile, further backed up Peretti’s claim, posting a short statement from his wife, Andrea Harder, who confirmed that she had been in attendance at the gathering and did hear Ivanka’s comment but had “no comment beyond that.” An anonymous source was also cited as confirming that the gathering took place in 2008.  

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Oct. 19, 4:17 p.m. Updated with the Trump campaign’s response and BuzzFeed’s additional reporting around the gathering.