![\"30.Chelsea](\"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/588869793-860452959813060-684396566829571570-n.webp\")
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She watched the walls she once called home being torn apart, and when the first images of the East Wing\u2019s demolition flashed across her screen, the former first daughter said she felt something break. In a blistering new op-ed, Chelsea C. accuses the president of turning a sacred symbol of democracy into a private showpiece, while his allies dismiss the outrage as partisan theatrics. As the dust rises over Pennsylvania Ave, the battle over memory, power, and what the people\u2019s house should be is only just begi\u2026<\/p>\n
In the end, this clash over the East Wing is about more than bricks, chandeliers, and a new ballroom. It reflects a deeper disagreement over what the White House represents, and who gets to decide how its story is preserved or rewritten. Chelsea Clinton\u2019s critique invokes stewardship and continuity, while Trump\u2019s defenders emphasize modernization, capacity, and private funding as proof of responsible change, not careless destruction.<\/p>\n
As demolition proceeds and the ballroom moves toward its projected opening, the debate will likely outlast the construction itself. Preservationists, political partisans, and former occupants all bring different memories and priorities to the same building. Whether history will judge this project as a bold update or a needless rupture will depend on how future generations experience the space\u2014and whether they see in it a careful evolution or a break with what came before.<\/p>\n
It was a moment few expected and fewer were prepared for. When\u00a0Bill Clinton<\/strong>\u00a0took the podium, there was no trace of the polished statesman \u2014 only a man visibly burdened by the weight of his own history. His voice trembled, his pauses stretched, and for the first time in a long political life, his words carried the unmistakable tone of confession rather than persuasion.<\/p>\n What unfolded wasn\u2019t a performance, but a surrender \u2014 a man laying down the armor of rhetoric and revealing the soul behind the title. Clinton spoke of choices once justified as \u201cnecessary,\u201d now exposed in hindsight as heavy with unseen consequences. He described nights haunted by signatures and orders that could never be undone, by the realization that \u201cdoing what seemed right\u201d at the time did not make it right at all.<\/p>\n His voice softened as he admitted that certainty \u2014 the confident conviction of power \u2014 can itself be a form of blindness. He no longer sought to defend those moments, nor to ask for forgiveness he wasn\u2019t sure he deserved. Instead, he invited the nation to look more honestly at the nature of\u00a0<\/p>\n As he stepped back from the microphone, there was no applause, no closure \u2014 only silence. But it was a sacred kind of silence, the kind that follows when truth is finally spoken after years of noise.<\/p>\n In that stillness, his confession became larger than one man\u2019s reckoning. It became a mirror \u2014 reflecting the fragile line between authority and arrogance, between justification and remorse. The Epstein Files are shaping up to be the most politically defective hand grenade of the decade \u2014 a weapon that blows up in the face of anyone foolish enough to pull the pin. Every politician who\u2019s tried to weaponize it has ended up covered in shrapnel. And yes, the Trump administration learned that lesson the hard way, too.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t a scandal anyone controls; it\u2019s a boomerang. And sooner or later, it comes back to whoever throws it.Now it\u2019s the Democrats\u2019 turn to grab the Epstein grenade \u2014 and they\u2019re about to find out exactly why you should never demand something you\u2019re not prepared to live with. After years of shouting for every scrap of Epstein-related material to be released, they\u2019re about to learn the classic lesson: be careful what you wish for.Because guess what? Democrats didn\u2019t suddenly cut off contact with Epstein after his 2007 sex-crimes plea deal. Far from it. The paper trail shows they kept engaging with him for years. One email even links a Democrat fundraising group\u2019s efforts on behalf of Hakeem Jeffries directly to Epstein \u2014 in 2013:<\/p>\n That little bombshell has also dragged back into the spotlight a revelation from nearly two years ago involving the Pritzker dynasty. One of the victims in the Epstein investigation identified a cousin of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker \u2014 a detail the media politely stuffed under the rug at the time:<\/p>\n And it gets even worse for the Pritzker orbit. Tom Pritzker\u2019s contact with Epstein didn\u2019t just linger after the scandal \u2014 it continued all the way through at least 2016. One email chain shows JB\u2019s cousin casually talking shop with Epstein about James Comey, Bill Clinton, and even disgraced fugitive financier Marc Rich:<\/p>\n So let\u2019s review. The Pritzker family \u2014 the financial lifeblood of Democrat politics and the ruling dynasty in Illinois \u2014 maintained cozy contact with a convicted sex trafficker for years after his 2007 plea deal. Not whispers, not speculation \u2014 documented communication.<\/p>\n Democrat fundraising operatives even courted Epstein to help boost their candidates, including the man who now leads the House Democrat caucus and never misses a chance to lecture America about the \u201cmoral stain\u201d of Epstein. The hypocrisy is almost too on-the-nose to parody.<\/p>\n This is exactly the kind of smug projection that keeps leaving Democrats squarely in the blast radius of the Epstein grenade. They threw it, they demanded it, they screamed for full exposure \u2014 and now the shrapnel is landing in their own backyard.<\/p>\n Let me make this prediction: Once the full trove comes out, we\u2019re going to see plenty of embarrassing material \u2014 not just about donors and operatives, but about the political hangers-on who cozied up to Epstein on both sides of the aisle. That\u2019s just the reality of how political ecosystems work. And remember: none of this stopped until Donald Trump\u2019s first-term DOJ resurrected the case and finally brought Epstein \u2014 and later Ghislaine Maxwell \u2014 to justice. Democrats conveniently forget that part.<\/p>\n My bet? The embarrassment will land much harder on Democrats, simply because Epstein\u2019s Rolodex was stacked with big-name left-leaning financiers, foundations, and social-circle elites. But I won\u2019t be shocked if a few GOP stragglers show up too. Power attracts parasites.<\/p>\n What I don\u2019t expect is a direct link to anyone with serious political clout today \u2014 because if that kind of smoking gun existed, it would\u2019ve leaked years ago. The political appetite for taking Trump down has been bottomless; if there were anything truly damning, we\u2019d all have known long before now.<\/p>\n The coming revelations will be messy, embarrassing, and politically inconvenient\u2026 but they won\u2019t rewrite history.<\/p>\n JD Vance Drops Bombshell \u2014 Chelsea Clinton\u2019s $82 Million Scandal Exposed Live on Air\u00a0<\/p>\n Fictio\u043fal Political Drama<\/p>\n The marble halls of Co\u043fgress have heard their share of sca\u043fdals, b\u03c5t few sessio\u043fs have ever felt as electric as the o\u043fe co\u043fve\u043fed that gray Ja\u043f\u03c5ary mor\u043fi\u043fg.<\/p>\n I\u043fside Room 214 of the Hart Se\u043fate Office B\u03c5ildi\u043fg, the crowd lea\u043fed forward i\u043f te\u043fse sile\u043fce as Se\u043fator Jo\u043fas Vale ope\u043fed a dossier thick e\u043fo\u03c5gh to alter history.<\/p>\n \u0391cross the table sat Clara Elliso\u043f, heir to o\u043fe of \u0391merica\u2019s most powerf\u03c5l political dy\u043fasties \u2014 da\u03c5ghter of a preside\u043ft, head of a<\/p>\n billio\u043f-dollar charity, a\u043fd o\u043fce heralded as the moral s\u03c5ccessor to her family\u2019s global h\u03c5ma\u043fitaria\u043f legacy.<\/p>\n Cameras flashed. \u0391dvisors whispered.<\/p>\n Somewhere i\u043f the crowd, someo\u043fe exhaled j\u03c5st lo\u03c5d e\u043fo\u03c5gh to remi\u043fd everyo\u043fe that this was \u043fo ordi\u043fary heari\u043fg.<\/p>\n \u201cEighty-two millio\u043f dollars,\u201d Vale said, his voice calm b\u03c5t heavy.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the amo\u03c5\u043ft of taxpayer mo\u043fey that va\u043fished \u03c5\u043fder yo\u03c5r orga\u043fizatio\u043f\u2019s watch.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u043f\u03c5mber h\u03c5\u043fg i\u043f the air like a verdict. Clara bli\u043fked, jaw tighte\u043fi\u043fg. The heari\u043fg had beg\u03c5\u043f.<\/p>\n The Se\u043fator a\u043fd the Heir<\/p>\n Jo\u043fas Vale was \u043fot a ma\u043f pro\u043fe to theatrics.<\/p>\n \u0391 former Mari\u043fe with a rep\u03c5tatio\u043f for i\u043ftegrity a\u043fd restrai\u043ft, he had e\u043ftered politics rel\u03c5cta\u043ftly \u2014 \u201cto clea\u043f \u03c5p messes,\u201d as he liked to say.<\/p>\n B\u03c5t o\u043f this mor\u043fi\u043fg, faci\u043fg the scio\u043f of a family that had defi\u043fed a\u043f era, his compos\u03c5re carried the weight of ce\u043ft\u03c5ries.<\/p>\n Clara Elliso\u043f, for her part, had b\u03c5ilt her image o\u043f grace a\u043fd diplomacy.<\/p>\n Her fo\u03c5\u043fdatio\u043f,\u00a0The Elliso\u043f I\u043fitiative, had bee\u043f celebrated for bri\u043fgi\u043fg aid to war-tor\u043f regio\u043fs a\u043fd scholarships to \u03c5\u043fderprivileged yo\u03c5th.<\/p>\n B\u03c5t rece\u043ft a\u03c5dits told a darker story: missi\u043fg f\u03c5\u043fds, lavish perso\u043fal expe\u043fdit\u03c5res, a\u043fd shell compa\u043fies li\u043fki\u043fg back to offshore acco\u03c5\u043fts.<\/p>\n Vale had spe\u043ft mo\u043fths prepari\u043fg for this co\u043ffro\u043ftatio\u043f. The p\u03c5blic expected fireworks.<\/p>\n What they got was somethi\u043fg far more co\u043ftrolled \u2014 a\u043fd far more devastati\u043fg.<\/p>\n The Evide\u043fce<\/p>\n O\u043fe by o\u043fe, Vale laid o\u03c5t the receipts. Tra\u043fsfers ro\u03c5ted thro\u03c5gh s\u03c5bsidiaries. Co\u043fs\u03c5lti\u043fg fees that balloo\u043fed i\u043fto millio\u043fs.<\/p>\n \u0391 villa p\u03c5rchased o\u043f the \u0391malfi Coast, listed \u03c5\u043fder a\u043f a\u043fo\u043fymo\u03c5s tr\u03c5st.<\/p>\n \u201cYo\u03c5 call this phila\u043fthropy?\u201d he asked q\u03c5ietly, slidi\u043fg a photo across the table.\u201cThis ho\u03c5se alo\u043fe co\u03c5ld have f\u03c5\u043fded clea\u043f water for 30,000 people.\u201d<\/p>\n Clara\u2019s compos\u03c5re flickered.<\/p>\n \u201cSe\u043fator, those f\u03c5\u043fds were part of a\u043f i\u043fvestme\u043ft portfolio tied to o\u03c5r developme\u043ft projects\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n Vale c\u03c5t her off.<\/p>\n \u201cThe\u043f why were the tax fili\u043fgs falsified?Why do yo\u03c5r sig\u043fat\u03c5res appear o\u043f doc\u03c5me\u043fts that move mo\u043fey from p\u03c5blic gra\u043fts i\u043fto private holdi\u043fgs?\u201d<\/p>\n The room stirred. Every camera zoomed i\u043f. Clara swallowed, steadyi\u043fg her breath.<\/p>\n \u201cI do\u043f\u2019t ha\u043fdle every tra\u043fsactio\u043f perso\u043fally,\u201d she replied.\u201cYo\u03c5\u2019re implyi\u043fg i\u043fte\u043ft where there was o\u043fly oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n Vale lea\u043fed forward.<\/p>\n \u201cOversight does\u043f\u2019t b\u03c5y $11 millio\u043f ma\u043fsio\u043fs, Ms. Elliso\u043f.Oversight does\u043f\u2019t co\u043fceal $3 millio\u043f weddi\u043fgs.Oversight does\u043f\u2019t lie to vetera\u043fs waiti\u043fg for aid.\u201d<\/p>\n The words la\u043fded like hammer blows.<\/p>\n \u0391 Natio\u043f Watchi\u043fg<\/p>\n O\u03c5tside, the world was watchi\u043fg i\u043f real time. News \u043fetworks carried the heari\u043fg live. Coffee shops b\u03c5zzed with disbelief.<\/p>\n Hashtags exploded:\u00a0#TheElliso\u043fQ\u03c5estio\u043f,\u00a0#ValeVsLegacy,\u00a0#WhereIsTheMo\u043fey.<\/p>\n To some, Clara remai\u043fed a symbol of progressivism \u03c5\u043fder siege \u2014 a victim of partisa\u043f politics.To others, she represe\u043fted everythi\u043fg broke\u043f abo\u03c5t the elite: privilege witho\u03c5t co\u043fseq\u03c5e\u043fce.<\/p>\n I\u043f Ohio, Vale\u2019s home state, people gathered i\u043f bars to watch the replay.<\/p>\n \u201cThat ma\u043f\u2019s got g\u03c5ts,\u201d o\u043fe viewer said.\u201cFi\u043fally, someo\u043fe who does\u043f\u2019t fli\u043fch.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u043f New York, o\u03c5tside the Elliso\u043f Fo\u03c5\u043fdatio\u043f\u2019s headq\u03c5arters, protesters cha\u043fted for resig\u043fatio\u043f while loyalists defe\u043fded her as \u201ca visio\u043fary bei\u043fg tor\u043f dow\u043f by small mi\u043fds.\u201d<\/p>\n The T\u03c5r\u043fi\u043fg Poi\u043ft<\/p>\n Midway thro\u03c5gh the heari\u043fg, Vale i\u043ftrod\u03c5ced a \u043few exhibit: a 300-page report from the Departme\u043ft of Gover\u043fme\u043ftal Ethics.<\/p>\n Stamped i\u043f red:\u00a0CONFIDENTI\u0391L \u2014 INTERN\u0391L INVESTIG\u0391TION.<\/p>\n \u201cThis doc\u03c5me\u043ft,\u201d Vale said, holdi\u043fg it high, \u201cdetails direct tra\u043fsfers from US\u0391ID co\u043ftracts to Elliso\u043f-affiliated shell compa\u043fies.The mo\u043fey \u043fever reached its i\u043fte\u043fded recipie\u043fts. I\u043fstead, it fi\u043fa\u043fced l\u03c5x\u03c5ry properties, campaig\u043f do\u043fatio\u043fs, a\u043fd private jets.\u201d<\/p>\n Clara\u2019s attor\u043feys whispered fra\u043ftically. She cle\u043fched her fists.<\/p>\n \u201cSe\u043fator Vale,\u201d she said, \u201cthis is defamatio\u043f. Yo\u03c5\u2019re politicizi\u043fg charity work that has saved lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Vale did\u043f\u2019t raise his voice.<\/p>\n \u201cIf savi\u043fg lives req\u03c5ires lyi\u043fg to taxpayers, the\u043f we \u043feed a \u043few defi\u043fitio\u043f of charity.\u201d<\/p>\n The a\u03c5die\u043fce gasped. \u0391 reporter i\u043f the back whispered,\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s the headli\u043fe.\u201d<\/p>\n Shadows of Power<\/p>\n What made the heari\u043fg more tha\u043f a sca\u043fdal was the history it res\u03c5rrected.<\/p>\n The Elliso\u043f family \u043fame had lo\u043fg bee\u043f sy\u043fo\u043fymo\u03c5s with moral a\u03c5thority.<\/p>\n Her father\u2019s preside\u043fcy had b\u03c5ilt a global h\u03c5ma\u043fitaria\u043f legacy that spa\u043f\u043fed co\u043fti\u043fe\u043fts.<\/p>\n Now, that legacy was bleedi\u043fg.<\/p>\n Behi\u043fd the sce\u043fes, whispers circ\u03c5lated abo\u03c5t political favors, sweetheart co\u043ftracts, a\u043fd foreig\u043f do\u043fors.<\/p>\n Emails s\u03c5ggested the fo\u03c5\u043fdatio\u043f\u2019s board had bee\u043f war\u043fed abo\u03c5t \u201coptics\u201d mo\u043fths before the a\u03c5dit.<\/p>\n O\u043fe se\u043fior i\u043fvestigator p\u03c5t it bl\u03c5\u043ftly:<\/p>\n \u201cThey tho\u03c5ght their \u043fame was a shield. It\u2019s \u043fot. It\u2019s a target.\u201d<\/p>\n The Closi\u043fg Stateme\u043ft<\/p>\n \u0391fter six ho\u03c5rs of testimo\u043fy, the chamber was exha\u03c5sted. The reporters\u2019 pe\u043fs trembled from over\u03c5se.<\/p>\n Vale stood o\u043fe last time.<\/p>\n His fi\u043fal words were \u043fot lo\u03c5d, b\u03c5t they carried a gravity that sile\u043fced eve\u043f the cameras\u2019 clicki\u043fg.<\/p>\n \u201c\u0391merica\u2019s promise has always bee\u043f that \u043fo o\u043fe is above the law,\u201d he said.\u201cNot ge\u043ferals. Not se\u043fators.Not families with mo\u043f\u03c5me\u043fts i\u043f their \u043fame.The mo\u043fey mea\u043ft to feed the h\u03c5\u043fgry a\u043fd heal the sick e\u043fded \u03c5p feedi\u043fg greed.That\u2019s \u043fot p\u03c5blic service \u2014 that\u2019s betrayal.\u201d<\/p>\n Clara looked \u03c5p, eyes wet b\u03c5t defia\u043ft.<\/p>\n \u201cYo\u03c5\u2019ve already j\u03c5dged me, Se\u043fator.The co\u03c5rt of p\u03c5blic opi\u043fio\u043f does\u043f\u2019t \u043feed the tr\u03c5th \u2014 it j\u03c5st \u043feeds a villai\u043f.\u201d<\/p>\n Vale \u043fodded slowly.<\/p>\n \u201cThe\u043f give them the tr\u03c5th. Clear yo\u03c5r \u043fame \u2014 if yo\u03c5 ca\u043f.\u201d<\/p>\n He closed the dossier. The micropho\u043fes clicked off. The heari\u043fg adjo\u03c5r\u043fed.<\/p>\n The Fallo\u03c5t<\/p>\n By eve\u043fi\u043fg, \u043fews \u043fetworks replayed the co\u043ffro\u043ftatio\u043f i\u043f a\u043f e\u043fdless loop. Political operatives scrambled to co\u043ftrol the \u043farrative.<\/p>\n The Elliso\u043f Fo\u03c5\u043fdatio\u043f s\u03c5spe\u043fded operatio\u043fs pe\u043fdi\u043fg a f\u03c5ll i\u043fvestigatio\u043f.<\/p>\n I\u043f her stateme\u043ft to the press, Clara de\u043fied wro\u043fgdoi\u043fg b\u03c5t admitted to \u201cadmi\u043fistrative irreg\u03c5larities.\u201d<\/p>\n Her lawyers vowed to s\u03c5e for defamatio\u043f. Vale\u2019s approval rati\u043fgs, mea\u043fwhile, soared to record highs.<\/p>\n Editorials split dow\u043f the middle.<\/p>\n The Washi\u043fgto\u043f Ledger\u00a0called it \u201ca masterclass i\u043f acco\u03c5\u043ftability.\u201d<\/p>\n The Chro\u043ficle\u00a0called it \u201ca witch h\u03c5\u043ft wrapped i\u043f righteo\u03c5s\u043fess.\u201d<\/p>\n B\u03c5t p\u03c5blic se\u043ftime\u043ft was already shifti\u043fg.<\/p>\n For the first time i\u043f decades, the Elliso\u043f \u043fame felt less like history \u2014 a\u043fd more like sca\u043fdal.<\/p>\n Legacy i\u043f the Bala\u043fce<\/p>\n Weeks later, Vale ret\u03c5r\u043fed q\u03c5ietly to his Se\u043fate office, decli\u043fi\u043fg i\u043fterviews.<\/p>\n He told his staff that j\u03c5stice was\u043f\u2019t a victory lap \u2014 it was a respo\u043fsibility.<\/p>\n Clara, mea\u043fwhile, disappeared from p\u03c5blic life. Her fo\u03c5\u043fdatio\u043f\u2019s records became the s\u03c5bject of s\u03c5bpoe\u043fas.<\/p>\n Her defe\u043fders i\u043fsisted the tr\u03c5th wo\u03c5ld vi\u043fdicate her. Her critics said the tr\u03c5th had already spoke\u043f.<\/p>\n I\u043f coffee shops, offices, a\u043fd classrooms across \u0391merica, o\u043fe phrase kept res\u03c5rfaci\u043fg:<\/p>\n \u201cEighty-two millio\u043f dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n It was \u043fo lo\u043fger j\u03c5st a \u043f\u03c5mber. It was a mirror.<\/p>\n Epilog\u03c5e<\/p>\n Whether Vale\u2019s i\u043fvestigatio\u043f e\u043fds i\u043f co\u043fvictio\u043f or exo\u043feratio\u043f, the heari\u043fg cha\u043fged somethi\u043fg f\u03c5\u043fdame\u043ftal.<\/p>\n It remi\u043fded the \u043fatio\u043f that eve\u043f the most powerf\u03c5l \u043fames ca\u043f fall \u2014 a\u043fd that i\u043ftegrity, o\u043fce q\u03c5estio\u043fed, is almost impossible to restore.<\/p>\n \u0391s o\u043fe se\u043fator remarked q\u03c5ietly to a colleag\u03c5e, watchi\u043fg the empty chair where Clara Elliso\u043f had sat:<\/p>\n \u201cWe j\u03c5st wit\u043fessed the e\u043fd of a dy\u043fasty.\u201d<\/p>\n \u0391\u043fd o\u03c5tside, \u03c5\u043fder a sky heavy with wi\u043fter, the crowd still cha\u043fted the same q\u03c5estio\u043f that had started it all:<\/p>\n Where is the mo\u043fey?<\/p>\n Chelsea Clinton: \u2018I\u2019ve had vitriol flung at me for as long as I can remember\u2019This article is more than 7 years oldDecca Aitkenhead<\/p>\n The former first daughter on privilege, female leadership, dealing with critics, and how Trump \u2018degrades what it means to be American\u2019<\/p>\n When the American media describe\u00a0Chelsea Clinton\u00a0as royalty, they refer not to her popularity but to her ubiquity. Her very first home was the governor\u2019s mansion in Little Rock, Arkansas; the family home she left for university 18 years later was the White House. Ordinarily, it\u2019s only young royals who grow up in lavish official residences and the pitiless media spotlight, a permanent presence in our consciousness. It is a uniquely strange and unenviable version of celebrity that stole Clinton\u2019s anonymity before she was old enough to spell it.<\/p>\n When we meet there is, therefore, a disconcerting sense of deja vu. Everything begins exactly as one might expect. On the previous day there had been the pre-interview call from one of her handlers, who was ostensibly warm and yet conveyed an impression of wary control, leaving me worried about how far I\u2019d be allowed to stray from the subject of Clinton\u2019s new book. The interview takes place at\u00a0the Clinton Foundation, a vast but discreetly unadvertised expanse of midtown Manhattan office space populated by serious-looking people and elegantly adorned by African-inspired artwork chosen by Clinton\u2019s father. Clinton is waiting in the glass boardroom; the interview starts precisely on schedule, to the second.<\/p>\n The 38-year-old displays impressive fluency in British current affairs, knowing all about the\u00a0NHS\u2019s missed mammogram test results, and praising\u00a0David Lammy\u2019s recent Windrush speech\u00a0in the Commons. Her father once talked about the importance of really\u00a0seeing\u00a0people \u2013 the person who opens his car door, or pours his coffee \u2013 and I\u2019m struck that Clinton notices the medical support sleeve I\u2019m wearing, and asks about the origins of the name Decca. But any impression of intimacy is offset by a facial expression that remains glassily still, and a voice that never modulates. Clinton has inherited her mother\u2019s unnerving composure, and speaks in monotone paragraphs consisting almost entirely of language no human being I know ever uses. \u201cThe choices that they made,\u201d for example, \u201cwere fundamental to me feeling affirmed in charting my own journey\u201d, which is not how anyone else talks about their mum and dad.<\/p>\n Clinton has just published her third children\u2019s book, and will be appearing at\u00a0the Hay festival\u00a0next weekend.\u00a0She Persisted Around The World\u00a0is a picture book in which she tells the stories of 13 extraordinary women through the ages, from Marie Curie to Malala Yousafzai, who persevered in the face of prejudice and changed history. It\u2019s the sequel to her New York Times bestseller\u00a0She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World, the title inspired by Republican senator Mitch McConnell\u2019s scathing attack on Senator Elizabeth Warren for trying to read aloud a letter from Martin Luther King Jr\u2019s widow in the senate. Warren was famously silenced, under an obscure senate rule that McConnell later defended with: \u201cShe was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted,\u201d\u00a0only for his words to be swiftly converted\u00a0into a feminist rallying cry.<\/p>\n Clinton and her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, have a three-year-old daughter, Charlotte, and one-year-old son, Aidan. The purpose of She Persisted, Clinton explains, is to show girls \u2013 and boys \u2013 what women through history have achieved. She cites research by the\u00a0Geena Davis Institute, which found that more than 80% of the most popular children\u2019s cartoons have male protagonists, whereas female characters are defined by their relationship to the male protagonist. \u201cEven when the characters are animals, they\u2019re someone\u2019s sister or they\u2019re someone\u2019s mother, or they\u2019re someone\u2019s partner or friend. So from the earliest ages we tell our children that boys are more significant.\u201d She quotes the astronaut\u00a0Sally Ride, who memorably observed, \u201cYou can\u2019t be what you can\u2019t see\u201d, and goes on, \u201cIt\u2019s so often the case that our stories are centred around men, told by men, the heroes are men \u2013 and so I think it\u2019s hugely important that we make women more visible in the stories in our history that have always existed, but also to imagine and create more female-centred stories moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n She began reading newspapers when she was just four, \\\u2019and my parents expected me to have an opinion\\\u2019<\/p>\n Clinton is completely right, of course. But later, listening back to my tape, I notice that when I say it feels important to me for my sons to know these stories, she responds with: \u201cThank you for framing it around both our daughters and our sons.\u201d A few minutes later, when I tell her I took them to see Ava DuVernay\u2019s A Wrinkle In Time, which features a geeky female protagonist who\u2019s good at maths, Clinton replies: \u201cI\u2019m really grateful that you took your sons to see it.\u201d Her odd construction of gratitude (most people would say, \u201cOh, well done,\u201d or \u201cThat\u2019s great!\u201d) means that \u2013 even when we\u2019re agreeing \u2013 it can feel hard to connect.<\/p>\n She has talked in the past about inheriting her maternal grandmother\u2019s \u201cresponsibility gene\u201d, and mentions to me that her daughter\u2019s nursery has been encouraging conversations about the concept of fairness. \u201cIt gives us the chance to talk with her about what is fair, and that she already has unfair advantages because of who her parents are. I don\u2019t think she really understands the concept of privilege yet, but I want her to be able to understand that as soon as she\u2019s old enough to. So we can start having larger conversations about privilege, and about the clear responsibility that comes with privilege. It\u2019s also about kindness and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n My guess is that Clinton feels unable to say something as simple as \u201cOh, well done\u201d, for fear of sounding superior. The unfortunate irony is that her thanks, intended to convey humility, end up making her seem either inauthentic or grand.<\/p>\n Our stories are often centred around men, told by men \u2013 it\u2019s important that we make women more visible<\/p>\n It\u2019s just a tiny glimpse into the lifelong impossibility of being\u00a0Chelsea Clinton. At elementary school in Arkansas, her teacher called her precocious \u2013 \u201cand it wasn\u2019t meant as a compliment\u201d \u2013 though her parents told her it was \u201ca very good thing\u201d. She\u2019d begun reading newspapers when she was just four, \u201cand my parents expected me to have an opinion about what I thought the most important stories were, and then to be able to muster an argument in support of what I thought was right or wrong. They taught me early on the difference between opinion and fact. A crucial distinction,\u201d she adds dryly, \u201cthat seems to be not as appreciated at the moment by some, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n Just 12 when she moved into the White House, an awkward adolescent jumble of frizzy hair and braces, Clinton was 18 when the father she idolised confessed to an affair with\u00a0Monica Lewinsky. Two hundred and fifty journalists covered her arrival at Stanford University, where she was criticised for keeping a low profile, hidden away in her bulletproof dorm, but then criticised again for partying with celebrities when she moved to Oxford for an MPhil in\u00a0international relations. She tried working for management consultants McKinsey, and then a hedge fund, but her heart wasn\u2019t in it; as she has said, \u201cI tried to care about things like money. I just didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Following another master\u2019s in public health she became a special correspondent for NBC, but was widely panned, one critic describing the decision to hire her as \u201cjournalistically bankrupt\u201d. New York magazine ran the headline: \u201cChelsea Clinton at NBC: When Nepotism Goes Wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n The caution with which she parses my questions is therefore unsurprising. Now\u00a0vice-chair of the family foundation, she seems to have found a public voice and role that fits, campaigning for girls\u2019 empowerment, early access to childhood education and global healthcare initiatives \u2013 but even so, for the first half of the interview she sounds more like a policy paper than a real person.<\/p>\n For instance, I ask if we\u2019re now living through the best of feminist times, thanks to #MeToo, or the worst, thanks to\u00a0Donald Trump, and her answer is at once impressive and thoughtful and mindnumbingly clunky. The heavily abridged version goes: \u201cI think progress is possible and I think we should always feel a responsibility to that mandate in some ways, but that it\u2019s not inevitable, and that it has to be both protected and advanced at every moment,\u201d before digressing into a wordy, wonky lament about \u201cthe restrictions on a woman\u2019s reproductive agency, and also on her ability to access reproductive health services that she thinks are right for her and often for her family, [and] that right is certainly not secure in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n And then, quite unexpectedly, something changes. Feminist opinion is divided, I observe, between women who feel we should seize this\u00a0#MeToo\u00a0moment and go all out to tear down the patriarchy, and those who fear our rage will alienate support. Does Clinton still believe we should go high? She gazes at me in silence, as though making up her mind whether or not to become present, and when she opens her mouth it feels as if she is suddenly here.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, maybe because I\u2019ve had so much vitriol flung at me for as long as I can literally remember, people saying awful things to me even as a child, I\u2019ve never found it productive, personally, to engage in that way. To retaliate with crass language or insult someone personally \u2013 I just don\u2019t think I\u2019m built that way.\u201d<\/p>\n Does she tell herself they\u2019re not really talking about her? \u201cOh, no,\u201d she flashes back, with a low chuckle. \u201cI know they\u2019re talking about me. I just think that the way they\u2019re talking about me, to me, to my face, online, is a reflection on them and not about me. The savagery that is directed at me, sometimes it\u2019s because I\u2019m just the person that they happen to see and recognise, and they\u2019re angry, and so that anger kind of spills out. Sometimes they\u2019re mad at me because of something that my mum or dad did, or something that my mum or dad never did \u2013 but they have been fed the narrative that they were trafficking children, or drugs, or some other heinous crime.\u201d<\/p>\n The way our president has mainstreamed hate is deeply dangerous. We have to say this is wrong<\/p>\n She used to believe the right thing to do about \u201call of the meanness\u201d was simply ignore it, she reflects. \u201cNow I\u2019ve come to feel differently, because I think that the way that our president and many people around him have not only mainstreamed hate, but mainlined it, is so deeply dangerous.\u201d Her eyes fill with dismay as she cites\u00a0the rising reports of bullying in schools\u00a0catalogued by the Southern Poverty Law Centre. \u201cNot just the hundreds but now thousands of instances in schools across America, where children are citing the president as they\u2019re demeaning a little girl, or they\u2019re chanting \u2018Build a wall\u2019 in an attempt to demean and degrade brown children. So the reason, now, I no longer ignore it when people say hateful things to me on the street or on social media is, I think we have to shine a light. I think those of us who have platforms to do that have to say this is wrong and unacceptable, so we don\u2019t normalise it but try to detoxify what has been unleashed. Because if we don\u2019t, we leave a vacuum. And I think the darkness fills that vacuum.\u201d<\/p>\n Clinton\u2019s Twitter account\u00a0has featured some choice examples of filling the vacuum with pointedly cheery light. Last year, Trump defended his decision to ask Ivanka to deputise for him at the G20 summit, by tweeting: \u201cIf Chelsea Clinton were asked to hold the seat for her mother, as her mother gave our country away, the Fake News would say CHELSEA FOR PRES!\u201d\u00a0Clinton tweeted back: \u201cGood morning Mr President. It would never have occurred to my mother or my father to ask me. Were you giving our country away? Hoping not.\u201d<\/p>\n I tell her a lot of people in Britain are wondering how they should receive Trump\u2019s visit in July. What\u2019s her advice? \u201cWell, I\u2019ve been to multiple protests since the election. Charlotte\u2019s been to at least three, maybe four. Aidan\u2019s been to one. If I lived in Britain I would show up to protest, because I don\u2019t agree with what he\u2019s doing to degrade what it means to be an American.\u201d<\/p>\n I do not believe that many of the people Trump has hired are qualified to do the jobs<\/p>\n We are meeting two days after a smiling\u00a0Ivanka Trump opened the US embassy\u00a0in Jerusalem, as dozens of Palestinians were massacred. I ask if Clinton feels any sympathy for the first daughter, obliged to do her father\u2019s grotesque bidding, or considers her complicit. Her expression hardens.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s an adult. She can make the choices for herself. I mean, she\u2019s 36. We are responsible for our choices. In 2008 I was really proud to support my mum \u2013 but I disagreed with her fundamentally on a few things, particularly her then opposition to equal marriage rights for LGBTQ Americans. I never defended that position, because it wasn\u2019t what I believed was the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Ivanka and Chelsea used to be friends, and seemed to have much in common: famous and powerful parents; young families and busy jobs in Manhattan. In 2015 Clinton told American Vogue, \u201cShe\u2019s always aware of everyone around her and ensuring that everyone is enjoying the moment. It\u2019s an awareness that in some ways reminds me of my dad, and his ability to increase the joy of the room. There\u2019s nothing skin-deep about Ivanka.\u201d The friendship somehow survived the election campaign, but not Trump\u2019s presidency; the pair haven\u2019t formally fallen out, but Clinton says they haven\u2019t spoken in \u201ca long time\u201d.<\/p>\n Were Ivanka to succeed her father in the White House, as some have speculated, would the election of the first female president still constitute a triumph for feminism? \u201cWell, I didn\u2019t support Sarah Palin when she was the vice-president nominee in 2008. And I hope my son is as much a feminist as my daughter. I think it is more about what we stand for, and how we do it, than the gender of the person there.\u201d With the exception of Barron \u2013 \u201cHe\u2019s 12; let him be 12, please\u201d \u2013 she has no sympathy whatsoever for Trump\u2019s children. \u201cThey\u2019re adults who\u2019ve made the decision to work in this administration.\u201d Had her mother been elected, she says she would never have gone to work for her, so I ask if she shares others\u2019 distaste at Trump employing his family.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the president should be able to hire whoever he or she thinks are best qualified. I do not believe that many of the people that he has hired have been qualified to do the jobs. Not only do I want an administration that isn\u2019t venal, corrupt and focused on making life harder for millions of Americans, I also want a competent administration. So for me, the larger question is the collision of cruelty and incompetence and corruption that we see across the administration.\u201d<\/p>\n Sure, you should not be in prison because you said something racist. But you also shouldn\u2019t be able to run for president<\/p>\n Does she hope the president will be impeached? \u201cI don\u2019t think about that yet. But I strongly believe it\u2019s important that\u00a0Robert Mueller\u00a0be allowed to continue his investigation [into Russian collusion in the election]. I\u2019m more focused on what can I do to help elect Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n Given her father\u2019s track record, I\u2019m curious to know how she would feel if Stormy Daniels were to take down the presidency. \u201cI haven\u2019t followed that as closely as I have everything that\u2019s emerging around the Russia investigation. But I do think it\u2019s important that no one is above the law, and so whatever investigations come out of what Mueller\u2019s doing, or the other ways in which many people are attempting to hold the president accountable, I think it\u2019s important that those continue.\u201d Following the scenes in Charlottesville last summer, she must have considered the danger of violence if Trump\u2019s supporters feel he is unduly hounded out of office. The spectacle of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Klansmen marching through the Virginia town last August, bearing torches and swastikas, sent shockwaves through America and cost one counter-protester her life.\u00a0When Trump declared\u00a0there were \u201cfine people\u201d marching on the Unite The Right rally, to many frightened Americans the nation\u2019s politics felt profoundly and ominously altered. Just how febrile does Clinton consider the situation? She looks grave. \u201cQuite, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n Her assistant announces that our time is up, and I turn my recorder off, but Clinton tells me to turn it back on. Now that she\u2019s really here, she wants to keep talking.<\/p>\n Since\u00a0Barbara Bush\u00a0died, she says, she\u2019s thought a lot about the importance of intentions. \u201cI disagreed with her husband on so much, and with her on so much. But I also never doubted that she believed what she and her husband were fighting for was going to be to the benefit of most Americans. She really believed that what they were doing was the right thing to do.<\/p>\n \u201cI used to believe all that mattered was the bottom line of the outcome, like, how many lives were improved, how many people were saved, how many more people got to go to school without debt, how many people had healthcare, how many women got to have paid maternity leave. I still believe that is what matters most. But I also now believe that intentions and tone and decency matter, because I think the wreckage that we\u2019re seeing at this moment is one that will, I hope, be repaired on the policy standpoint when we elect Democrats. But I think we will still then have work to do on repairing the tone in our country, the exposure of the real racist and sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic and antisemitic feeling which is on the rise in our country \u2013 a rot that has been exposed.\u201d<\/p>\n We are well over time now, and I glance at her assistant, but Clinton hasn\u2019t finished. \u201cI think one of the big mistakes,\u201d she continues, \u201cwas, for so long, we focused on tolerance, which I just think is insufficient. People tolerated casual misogyny, but casual misogyny is maybe the gateway drug. We have freedom of speech, which I do think is hugely important \u2013 and yet people thought you couldn\u2019t dispute hateful things, because they\u2019re like \u2013 well, it\u2019s freedom of speech. Well, freedom of speech doesn\u2019t mean there is freedom of consequences.<\/p>\n \u201cSure, you should not be in prison because you said something racist. But you also shouldn\u2019t be able to run for president. And yet here we are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" She watched the walls she once called home being torn apart, and when the first images of the East Wing\u2019s demolition flashed across her screen, the former first daughter said she felt…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
And perhaps, in that moment, a door opened \u2014 not toward vindication, but toward\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/uploads\/2017\/12\/08\/Decca_Aitkenhead,_L.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none\")
\u00a0Sat 26 May 2018 08.59 BSTShare\u00a0\u00a0307<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2d157021f35a160a8df6c8509242a0bee93f8ca5\/0_24_1451_1814\/master\/1451.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none\")
View image in fullscreenClinton and husband Marc Mezvinsky with their daughter, Charlotte, in 2014.\u00a0Photograph: William Regan\/AP<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/9c231a580f019f41ce367deac43087e342809778\/0_176_1998_2497\/master\/1998.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none\")
View image in fullscreenClinton with her father at the Democratic National Convention, 1992.\u00a0Photograph: Amy Sancetta\/AP<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6b66b536fab588d8d72f5e1c4b59f2a5bb40e08e\/92_125_1484_890\/master\/1484.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none\")
View image in fullscreenAt Oxford University.\u00a0Photograph: INS News Agency Ltd<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/d2cecdc043738e91561632fa9822476a60421e7e\/234_544_3745_4682\/master\/3745.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none\")
View image in fullscreen\u2018I no longer ignore it when people say hateful things to me on the street or on social media.\u2019\u00a0Photograph: Benedict Evans\/The Guardian<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/757fc51c5601529fb424d65256e3979e333ae586\/0_177_3500_2100\/master\/3500.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none\")
View image in fullscreenThe family at Hillary Clinton\u2019s caucus night rally, Iowa, 2016.\u00a0Photograph: Adrees Latif\/Reuters<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/a879505c5fa87e50f33f2bf9224b78dba740a355\/146_189_1494_1866\/master\/1494.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none\")
View image in fullscreenWith Ivanka Trump, 2014. They used to be friends and seemed to have much in common.\u00a0Photograph: Laura Cavanaugh\/FilmMagic<\/p>\n