Bullhorn and siren sounds rang out, startling suspected 2016 Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton while she spoke to a room of over 3,000 pediatric medical professionals in San Diego this weekend.
Clinton appeared as keynote speaker at an American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Conference Sunday. Her speech was interrupted just minutes in by a heckler in the audience. The man was quickly taken away, after which Hillary joked at his expense, “Ya know, there are some people who miss important developmental stages.”
Speaking for 30 minutes, the former Secretary of State addressed early childhood literacy, using the opportunity to promote an early literacy toolkit to which the 62,000 members of the AAP will receive access.
She also worked in references to her own failed healthcare reform initiative, pushed while she was First Lady, and other 1990s healthcare policy milestones according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. According to a report by local CBS 8, Clinton also lauded the efforts of the AAP in support of public health care policy. Likely looking forward to 2016, Clinton worked in political messaging as well, warning, “Congress must not gamble with our children’s future.”
Clinton made sure to bring up that she is a new grandmother and a mother. One attendee told CBS 8 that she believed Clinton’s reference to being a grandmother really “touched the hearts'”of those listening.
Clinton praised the crowd, in video recorded by the Union-Tribune: “When U.S. parents around our country, who they turn to with a question or concern about their baby, hands down the number one answer is, their pediatrician. I can tell you that answer is, in my limited now experience of two weeks and two days, far ahead of, ‘oh, my mother.’ Eventually we get back around to ‘my mother,’ but we start with the experts.”
The AAP has embarked on a joint initiative, Too Small to Fail, self-described as focused on increasing health and well being of children, with the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation and Next Generation.
Next Generation works in the areas of “dangerous climate change and the threat of diminished prospects for children and families.”
Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana
Photo: File
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