Time for Chelsea Clinton's Easy Ride to End

Politico ^ | 2/05/2016 | Jack Shafer

[TroutStalker]

Why is the press treating a wealthy, 35-year-old political operative like she's still a White House kid?

When precisely did Chelsea Clinton complete her transition from a White House kid whom journalists agreed to treat as off-limits to a public figure deserving of the full scrutiny of the press corps?

The unsettling answer to the question appears to be, “Not yet.” The soon-to-be 36-year-old occupies the status of an American princess—Diana on the Potomac, if you will. The press covers her, of course, attempting to ask her substantive question, but mostly she exists to grace the covers of magazines—Fast Company and Elle most recently—and be treated to lighter-than-air puff pieces.

Few object to the cone of deference the press places over the actual children who reside in the White House, or their parents’ attempts to construct a privacy zone around them. Even after White House kids are no longer minors and move on to college, as Chelsea did in 1997, most reporters and editors resist covering them as news in themselves. Unless a White House kid breaks the law, takes measures to make their private profile public, or otherwise becomes “newsworthy” (is injured in an accident, is stalked, etc.), the press basically turns a blind eye.

But at some point—early adulthood—the general immunity from critical coverage needs to end. The threshold for newsworthiness recedes, and the children of presidents become more like the siblings, cousins, uncles and parents of presidents. In other words, if one of President Obama’s daughters got busted for drunk driving, few would expect saturation coverage from the press. But, say, had Obama’s Boston aunt gotten arrested for drunk driving before she died in 2014, there would have been no reason for the press to turn a blind eye. Chelsea Clinton should be treated no more royally than the Nixon daughters, Susan Ford, Amy Carter, the Gore children, or the Bush and Reagan progeny.

The coverage threshold falls lower still if a grown-up White House kid expands her own public profile, as Chelsea Clinton most definitely has. She has maintained a role as adviser and advocate inside the Clinton family’s political dynasty since leaving Stanford University. In late 2011, she crossed over to the dark and often invasive art of journalism, working at NBC News as a special correspondent ($600,000/year) until August 2014. Today, Chelsea serves as vice chair of the politically controversial Clinton Foundation, which has raised $2 billion since 2001. She’s a board member at Barry Diller’s IAC (paid a reported $300,000 a year, plus stock awards). She charges $65,000 per speech. Last fall, she published a book on “empowerment” for kids. She’s powerful. She exercises influence. She’s all grown up, soon to be the mother of two. If she isn’t newsworthy, nobody is.

As is her right, Chelsea picks and chooses how to respond to the press. Had you lived through the White House sex scandals as she did, you might not have affection for the press, either. For years, when approached by reporters asking questions, she would politely demur. In 2007, while stumping for her mother’s presidential campaign, shaking hands with voters and posting for photos, Chelsea spun her advocacy from the softest cotton—with no message exceeding the “vote for my mom, she’s the best” variety. She worked hard, traveling thousands of highway miles, visiting more than 100 campuses and dialing up to 60 names a day in support of the Clinton campaign.

But she refused to talk to the press, famously brushing off a fourth-grader from Scholastic News at a campaign event who asked her an innocuous political question.

“I’m sorry,” Chelsea said. “I don’t talk to the press and that applies to you, unfortunately. Even though I think you’re cute.”

As Vanity Fair reported, in early 2008 the Clinton campaign placed “warning calls” to David Shuster, then at MSNBC, the day after he asked her a couple of questions (that went unanswered) at a campaign event. Chelsea, age 27, was off-limits, the campaign said.

As the Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign gathered steam, Chelsea agreed to sit for interviews with the press, but most of them were of the softball variety with Fusion, Ellen DeGeneres and Extra. But whenever the questions turn probing, Chelsea tends to shut down. At a April 2015 Council on Foreign Relations forum in New York, ABC News anchor Juju Chang asked her to respond to the news stories that criticized the Clinton Foundation's fundraising methods. “Not surprisingly, Chelsea punted,” wrote the Daily Beast’s Lloyd Grove about the session. Instead, she discussed all the good work the foundation does. Grove continued, “Needless to say, I was thwarted in my efforts to ask Chelsea a follow-up question as she left the building after patiently greeting a receiving line of admirers.”

A similar thing happened last fall on the Today show after Savannah Guthrie asked Chelsea how she felt about poll results in which respondents linked Hillary Clinton to the words “dishonest,” “untrustworthy” and “liar.” Chelsea retreated into the realm of the non-answer. “I’m not a pundit, I’m a daughter,” she said, and spoke instead of how proud she was to have Hillary as her mother.

Perhaps Chelsea avoids serious talks with the press because she’s smart enough to know that words betray her when she speaks extemporaneously, as she did in the middle of January when a young voter asked her how to mobilize young American’s for the Clinton campaign. Chelsea dug a hole, jumped into it, and dug deeper to attack Bernie Sanders as someone who wants to “dismantle Obamacare, dismantle the CHIP program, dismantle Medicare and private insurance.”

Such Democrats as former Barack Obama adviser David Axelrod were appalled by Chelsea’s reckless charge. PolitiFact rated Chelsea’s comment as “Mostly False“ as it “makes it sound like Sanders’ plan would leave many people uninsured, which is antithetical to the goal of Sanders’ proposal: universal health care.”

Sharp rebukes came almost immediately from With All Due Respect’s John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. Halperin repeatedly pronounced himself “stunned” by the attack. Heilemann called the jab “historic,” continuing to say that it was “disingenuous” and “just a lie” that Sanders seeks to strip health care from people. The duo relit the fire the following day, as Halperin declared himself perplexed by the “lack of interest that most of the news world had to her remarks.” He added, “As far as we could tell, very few of our media colleagues were as blown away by Chelsea’s rhetoric as we were.” Heilemann responded that the show “got a lot of blowback” for having ripped Chelsea’s comments the previous day, and attributed the media complacency to the “muscle memory” acquired by the media over the years that instructs them to instinctively treat White House kids as off-limits no matter how old they are.

“There’s little doubt that today, what some in the Clinton orbit call the ‘invisible hand of Chelsea’ shapes almost every significant decision her parents make,” wrote POLITICO’s Kenneth P. Vogel last April in a feature story about the political scion. The time for treating her as a fragile kid has long passed. Nor does she occupy some ceremonial function as international goodwill ambassador that places her beyond reproach. She’s an educated (Stanford, Columbia, Oxford), mature, wealthy, campaign surrogate and a well-connected ex-journalist who knows the score. “I had very much led a deliberately private life for a long time, and now I’m attempting to lead a perfectly public life,” as she told CNN in 2013.

Chelsea Clinton deserves no special treatment from the press, and from what I can tell, she no longer expects it. “I’m really grateful I grew up in a house in which media literacy was a survival skill,” she said upon becoming an NBC News correspondent in 2011. Nobody put it better than Halperin last month when he said, “The notion of laying off her seems ridiculous. Fair coverage, but not no coverage.”

[Spok]

I can’t look at her without seeing her father-Webb.

[Pearls Before Swine]

I’ll read the longer VF article and get back to you. Thanks.

In the shorter one, I found the comment that under Chelsea, the Foundation has “gone from something that Hillary can point to with pride to a bloated slush fund” quite amusing. It’s always been about the money with Hillary. It was always a slush fund, although perhaps a smaller and therefore less bloated one in times gone by.

[Qiviut]

I think when Hilly became Secretary of State, the Clinton Fund became a “slush fund” on steroids.

As for Chelsea, she is her mother’s daughter and I doubt she shares any DNA with Bill which doesn’t help matters any as far as temperament, etc.

[AllAmericanGirl44]

That line jumped out at me as well. Wth does she advise them on??!

[Resolute Conservative]

Watch for Chelsea to run for office within the next few years to start her ascension to the throne.

[PJ-Comix]

Little reported is that Chelsea’s hubby is a HEDGE FUND MANANGER. Got that? A HEDGE FUND MANAGER.

[dfwgator]

George P’s, too.

[nascarnation]

Consider the grandparents of Charlotte:

Ed - convicted felon
Webb - convicted felon
Hillary - soon to be pardoned felon

And step grandfather Bill - impeached POTUS

[AZLiberty]

Today, Chelsea serves as vice chair of the politically controversial Clinton Foundation, which has raised $2 billion since 2001.

When it comes to vice, they want to keep it in the family.

[cherry]

what exactly are those funny characters?....I thought I was the only one getting them...so annoying...

[Liz]

Clinton Foundation Events Colliding With Campaign
(donors/staff say no to elevating Chelsea)
POLITICO.COM | 1/28/16 | FR Posted

POLITICO: The Clinton Foundation may scale back its operation during Hillary/s campaign which is now considered a "distraction" by some of Hillary/s supporters. The Clinton Global Initiative...the playground of the rich and famous and the foundation/s do-good showcase headed by Bill, Hillary and Chelsea....is catching heat from some donors.

"Corporate donors have expressed reservations about writing sponsorship checks to have CEOs appear on CGI panels with Chelsea, not her father," Politico says. "And some Clinton Foundation staffers bristled when [Chelsea] was elevated to a named foundation principle."

Donors also found it "haughty" when official materials began referring to Chelsea as "Dr. Chelsea Clinton" .... which refers to her PhD in international relations from Oxford (whice Bill also attended).

The foundation is so concerned, it has commissioned a top Boston consulting firm to study how to improve CGI operation. Clinton Foundation CEO Donna Shalala has warned staff of "possible restructuring and election year uncertainty."

Philanthropy professional Derek Yach, an adviser to CGI, says that Chelsea would likely concede she is "not yet at the level of unique convening capability of her father." There is "a little bit of caution" around CGI until "we know the result of the election." (Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...

[Liz]

Chelsea Clinton: Republican Hate Speech Is "Far More Troubling" Than Attacks On My Parents
Cosmopolitan Magazine / FR posted by bryan999

REPORTER: Donald Trump has called your dad an abuser of women, and your mom his enabler. What do you think of his attacks on your parents?

CHELSEA I find what Donald Trump and many of the Republicans say about Americans far more troubling than what he says about my parents. And people have been attacking my parents my whole life, so maybe I am just inured to that, but I tend to think that people who are at the forefront of progress do attract more negative attention from those who want to protect the status quo.

But what I have found surprising and really disturbing in this election cycle is the broad-based misogyny and sexism and racism and Islamophobia and jingoism and homophobia and anti-immigrant rhetoric. All of that is coming out from the Republican side. That somehow has become normalized because it's now just so common, not only [for] Mr. Trump, but for other candidates to say things that I think are so fundamentally un-American.

To call into the question the right of any person who has chosen to come to our country with the intent of working hard and making a contribution and wants a chance at the American Dream, to somehow say that that person disqualifies from being here because of the country they come from, their sexual orientation, or the religion they adhere to, that's what I find far more troubling, and I find that troubling because that does seem to have become unexceptional in a really perverse way.

The hate speech that has somehow become one of the main calling cards of Republicans, I find really, really troubling. (Excerpt) Read more at cosmopolitan.com ...

==============================================

Chelsea and hubby Marc Mezvinsky live in this $10 million condo.

Chelsea's husband runs a hedge fund that gained access to investors w/ ties to the Clintons and Goldman Sachs---even as reports surfaced that Mezvinsky's hedge fund had "underwhelming" returns.

The WSJ reports extensively on the fund's underperformance since its inception. Also reported was Mezvinsky's mediocre investing and strategizing.

Back in 2011, Mezvinsky, now 37, and two former Goldman Sachs colleagues, Bennett Grau and Mark Mallon, began raising money for Mezvinsky's Eaglevale Partners LP hedge fund.

Some of Eaglevale's investors included Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. Blankfein, a slavish Democrat supporter, said he had "always been a fan of Hillary Clinton."

[Liz]

Watch for the Clintons patented solidarity game.

"Smile everybody. Another $100 million came in today.

================================================

The Clintons locked arms after Pres Bill got lewinskied in the Oval Office.

VINTAGE TIME COVER The Clintons leave the WH
arm-in-arm after Bill got lewinskied. There's no business
like Clinton business. They smile when they are
low....b/c the Clinton show MUST go on.

==================================================

And there's Hillary's annoying way of bouncing back out of trouble.
Hillary's sub rosa political ambitions were in deep doo-doo when Bill
got lewinskied. What to do? Easy. Blame it on conservatives.

Hill went on network TV all decked out in virginal pearls,
denying everything, blaming Billy's B/J on "an invention of
the VRWC." Bill later admitted to it, was impeached, and disbarred.

[1Old Pro]

Chelsea, now THAT is White Privilege.

[Liz]

HOW THE CONNIVING CLINTONS WORK THE FAMILY FOUNDATION SCAM Just the other day, compassionate little Chelsea frowned and worried about dwindling elephant herds. BOOM---the Clinton Family Foundation had a new fund-raising pitch.

CHECK IT OUT--CLINTON FOUNDATION WEB SITE Peruse 276 web pages of obscure programs all of them vehicles to raise money. All of them expecting payback w/ Hillary in the WH.

LOCATED
1271 Avenue of the Americas 42nd Floor
New York, NY 10020
212-348-8882
WEB SITE http://www.clintonfoundation.org/clinton-global-initiative

The do-gooder Clintons calculatedly morphed into "The Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Family Foundation" ..... giving them even more fund-raising capabilities w/ a friendly "family" aura.

=====================================

Paraphrasing VDHanson ....lurid revelations indicate the Clinton Foundation is a huge money-laundering operation fuelling the Clintons affluent lifestyle and their political ambitions.....with well-paid sinecures for the hydra-headed Clinton retinue flitting around w/ scads of money. The serial cover-ups and financial legerdemain are the result of greed and the Clintons naked buck-raking.......

==============================================

"Do-goodism" is the Clintons' passport into the deep pockets of numerous global entities. The avaricious Clintons devised hundreds of obscure programs to collect billions.....bragging about do-goodism, how the money was supposedly dispersed to "assist" endless charitable projects.

[b4its2late]

LOL! Good one!

[b4its2late]

Piled Higher and Deeper.

[SunkenCiv]

Actually, it's long past time for the free ride enjoyed by her entire, uh, family, to end. For that matter, it should never have begun in the first place.

• [The Dunce] Chelsea Clinton Accidentally Calls Bernie, "President Sanders"

[Yaelle]

I’m reading the Clintons War on Women and Chelsea is DIRTY like her mom and “dad.” Well, Hubbell pops is dirty too.

[GOPJ]

The press mocked Ted Cruz’s children - and they really are children.

Then again we all know the press had a double standard... waht jerks they are....