ABC Fawns Over Chelsea Clinton, Hints of Possible Political Future
ABC's Good Morning America touted Chelsea Clinton's appearance at the Clinton Global Initiative in a fawning segment Friday. Former Clinton advisor George Stephanopoulos termed it "that rare turn in the spotlight for Chelsea Clinton," and ABC did its level best to get the word out.
Correspondent Dan Harris lauded Bill and Hillary Clinton as "two of the most powerful people in the world" but made sure to note their daughter Chelsea's intelligence and growing profile. He even went so far as to report a Facebook comment saying she should run for President.
[Video below the break. Click here for audio.]
"Chelsea's profile has been pretty high lately. She just launched a brand-new Facebook page this week, and one early commenter encouraged her to run for president one day," Harris touted.
ABC also pointed out the "tender moment" between Chelsea and Hillary when a microphone caught the two thanking each other after the conversation. Both ABC and NBC emphasized the light-hearted mother-daughter banter about technology.
"And a rare public mother-daughter chat from the former First Family, as Chelsea Clinton ribbed her mom, the Secretary of State, at the Clinton Global Initiative Thursday," cooed NBC's Today show anchor Natalie Morales.
A transcript of the segments, which aired on September 23, are as follows:
ABC
GOOD MORNING AMERICA
9/23/11
7:18 a.m. EDT
[7:18]
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Okay, now we're going to get to that rare turn in the spotlight for Chelsea Clinton. Growing up in the White House, she rarely spoke in public. At her five-star wedding, Chelsea was seen in these photos, not heard. But yesterday she shared the stage at President Clinton's Global Initiative with her mom, the Secretary of State. Here's ABC's Dan Harris with something we've never seen before.
(Video Clip)
DAN HARRIS, ABC News correspondent: (voice-over) There they were, together on the stage, the Secretary of State and her daughter Chelsea.
Former President BILL CLINTON: We are now going to proceed to have a conversation between the Secretary of State and her daughter.
CHELSEA CLINTON, daughter of Bill Clinton: Thank you dad, and thank you all for joining us this afternoon.
HARRIS: Whose voice we heard so rarely since she hit the campaign trail with her mom back in 2008.
CHELSEA CLINTON: My first event with my mom.
HARRIS: And though her parents are two of the most powerful people in the world –
CHELSEA CLINTON: What's the difference between the urgent and the important?
HILLARY CLINTON, Secretary of State: Well I'll tell you. For example, if you get a call that an embassy is under attack, that's urgent. If you –
HARRIS: Their only child gently ribbed them for their technological shortcomings.
CHELSEA CLINTON: As your daughter, I remember when I helped you send your first text message.
HILLARY CLINTON: Yes.
(Audience Laughter)
HILLARY CLINTON: That wasn't very long ago, I have to tell you.
HILLARY CLINTON: Both Bill and I – I mean, if you don't tell anybody, I'll tell you. We are primitive.
CHELSEA CLINTON: My father still refers to the internet as the world wide web.
HARRIS: In front of a live audience, Chelsea chatted with her mom about everything from global stock markets to "Arab Spring" to a new movie about an outbreak.
CHELSEA CLINTON: Those of us in the public health community are grateful for the movie "Contagion."
HARRIS: Chelsea's profile has been pretty high lately. She just launched a brand-new Facebook page this week, and one early commenter encouraged her to run for president one day.
CHELSEA CLINTON: Well thank you, mom. I'm once again grateful that you're my mom and my Secretary of State.
HARRIS: When her chat with her mom was over, a tender moment caught on the mike.
HILLARY CLINTON: Thank you, honey.
CHELSEA CLINTON: Thank you, mom.
HARRIS: And then the former President came on stage.
BILL CLINTON: You can see why I don't win many arguments at home.
(Laughter)
HARRIS: For Good Morning America, Dan Harris, ABC News, New York.
(End Video Clip)
STEPHANOPOULOS: I still call it the "world wide web" too.
(Laughter)
NBC
TODAY
9/23/11
7:17 a.m. EDT
[7:17]
NATALIE MORALES: And a rare public mother-daughter chat from the former First Family, as Chelsea Clinton ribbed her mom, the Secretary of State, at the Clinton Global Initiative Thursday.
(Video Clip)
CHELSEA CLINTON: As your daughter, I remember when I helped you send your first text message.
HILLARY CLINTON: Yes.
(Audience Laughter)
HILLARY CLINTON: That wasn't very long ago, I have to tell you.
CHELSEA CLINTON: And my father still refers to the internet as the world wide web.
(Laughter)
(End Video Clip)
MORALES: And while Hillary Clinton admits to being low-tech, Chelsea revealed her mother's self-appointed e-mail signoff as none other than "Techno Mom."
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Look at my shocked face
Doesn't she work for an evil hedge fund?
Isn't she exploiting the poor?
Oh, wait, she's a Democrat.
I must have missed the stories,,
Fawning over the Bush twins, yes? No? Have there EVER been any like that? Have there EVER been any negative Chelsea stories?
Yup... One...
DAVID SHUSTER: Bill, there's just something a little bit unseemly to me that Chelsea's out there calling up celebrities, saying support my mom, and she's apparently also calling these super delegates.
BILL PRESS: Hey, she's working for her mom. What's unseemly about that? During the last campaign, the Bush twins were out working for their dad. I think it's great, I think she's grown up in a political family, she's got politics in her blood, she loves her mom, she thinks she'd make a great president --
SHUSTER: But doesn't it seem like Chelsea's sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?
Shuster is no longer around... (He did a CNN promo that got him fired)
Chelsea more protected than Obama
If Chelsea ran for POTUS would she become an even more protected candidate than Obama ever was?
I mean, you know the saying, "kids are off limits".
When Chelsea was out campaigning for her mother a few years ago, and someone asked a tough question, she refused to answer. The media closed ranks and that was it.
Actually, if it's the same question I remember, it was
asked by a Clinton supporter and had something to do with her father's scandals. She said it was none of the questioner's business.
When all the crap was happening with Bill Clinton, I sometimes wondered how it must feel to have a father who's accused of rape, groping, adultery, etc. She was old enough at the time (teenager) to know most of it was true, unless she was in a state of denial. Like maybe it really was the "vast right wing conspiracy" BS her Mom claimed. Yeah, right.
Kind of like OJ's kids. Assuming an IQ above room temperature, they must know by now that their father killed their Mom.
Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy...
Chelsea Clinton had a quick retort Tuesday when asked whether her mother's credibility had been hurt during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
"Wow, you're the first person actually that's ever asked me that question in the, I don't know maybe, 70 college campuses I've now been to, and I do not think that is any of your business," Clinton said refusing to answer the question during a campaign visit for her mother.
The questioner was referring to Hillary Clinton's comments that the relationship was a "vast right-wing conspiracy", before she was fully aware of her husband's true relationship with Lewinsky.
Yeah, she was "just a kid"
Yeah, she was "just a kid" and it was soooo long ago and Dad has done soooo much for the world's poor and Mom has spread peace throughout the world and did I mention she was "just a kid" and...
Well if it's true that apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
She sure has my vote as someone I can trust (not).
A remarkable similarity!
Some years ago there was a guy running for President, every cycle it seemed. Some older pictures of her (graduation with Mommy and Daddy for one) show a remarkable resemblance with that guy. I don't keep track of him anymore and she sure looks different (better) than in her younger days. Modern medicine I suppose. But old Alfred and Chelsea could have been twins, once.
Her husband dumped her for a
Her husband dumped her for a woman.