Chelsea Clinton opened up about her political activism, Donald Trump’s presidency, the next chapter of the Clinton Foundation and her social media use in a wide-ranging interview Tuesday for the cover of Variety‘s “Power of Women New York” issue.
In an interview with the Hollywood trade’s New York bureau chief Ramin Setoodeh, the 37-year-old former First Daughter urged those who supported her mother — former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton — in the 2016 race to “raise your voice” and get up off the “sidelines” in the era of Trump.
“Everything that took you to the polls that day, hopefully takes you to the streets, takes you to social media, takes you into conversations at work, at home, wherever you may be — to talk about what’s really at risk in this moment,” Clinton told the outlet. “Because I think everything is at risk. Our fundamental rights, our fundamental security, are at risk.”
Clinton also said she was “not surprised” to see the sexism she says still exists in America when she was out stumping for her mother on the campaign trail. At the Women in the World summit this month, Hillary Clinton blamed misogyny among the American electorate for her election defeat.
“I’m deeply saddened,” Chelsea told Variety. “I think it’s important for us to realize we can’t take progress for granted. Progress has to be continually defended as well as advanced. I think about this multiple times a day.”
“It’s 2017, and we’re fighting again on fights that were settled a few years ago around gay rights, women’s reproductive health; fights to ensure we’re a country that’s always moving toward a more perfect union and not moving toward disunion, disunity, and segregation,” she added. “We’re really in peril of moving backward. That’s not what I want for my children and their generation.”
In the interview, Clinton also discussed her family’s Clinton Foundation, which came under intense scrutiny during the 2016 campaign over allegations of influence-peddling. The younger Clinton told Variety she became “frustrated” with the coverage of the foundation during the campaign, “because the facts didn’t seem sufficient to put [the lies] to rest.”
Still, Clinton said she is excited about the foundation’s “next chapter.”
“At its most distilled level, we try to make a positive, impactful, empowering difference in whatever ways we can,” she said “It’s the story of any of our programmatic work over time, whether we’re thinking about global health, climate change, the work we’ve done for women and girls. That will continue to be our story in the future.”
Clinton also used the interview to again throw cold water on rumors she may soon run for public office herself: “I am not running for public office,” she said.
Read Clinton’s complete interview with Variety here.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.