Silent Chelsea Clinton Brushes Off 9-Year-Old Reporter on Campaign Trail
Dec. 30: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., right and daughter Chelsea greet an audience in Vinton, Iowa. (AP Photo)
VINTON, Iowa — It’s one thing for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign to turn down interview requests for the candidate’s daughter, Chelsea. But can’t a 9-year-old reporter catch a break?
Sydney Rieckhoff, a Cedar Rapids fourth grader and “kid reporter” for Scholastic News, has posed questions to seven Republican and Democratic presidential hopefuls as they’ve campaigned across Iowa this year. But when she approached the 27-year-old Chelsea after a campaign event Sunday, she got a different response.
“Do you think your dad would be a good ‘first man’ in the White House?” Sydney asked, but Chelsea brushed her question aside.
“I’m sorry, I don’t talk to the press and that applies to you, unfortunately. Even though I think you’re cute,” Chelsea told the pint-sized journalist.
Such is the paradox of Chelsea as she campaigns across Iowa in the closing days before the state’s caucuses Jan. 3.
Tall and attractive, Chelsea cuts an impressive figure on the campaign trail; she plunges enthusiastically into the crowd after her mother’s speeches, shaking hands and posing for pictures while asking, “Are you going to caucus for my mom?”
But onstage, Chelsea never speaks; she stands next to her mother and applauds but utters not a single sentence and doesn’t even say hello. And reporters covering the campaign have been put on notice that Chelsea is not available to speak to them. An aide follows the former first daughter as she works the crowd, shushing reporters who approach her and try to ask any questions.
Famously protective of their daughter’s privacy, Bill and Hillary Clinton have taken pains to shield Chelsea from the harsh glare and rough edges of presidential politics. She stayed largely absent from her mother’s campaign until December, when she made her first visit to Iowa.
For her part, Sydney looked a bit crestfallen after Chelsea turned her away. But luckily for Hillary Clinton, Sydney’s mother has made up her mind to caucus for the former first lady.
“I like her position on family values and health care. And I think it’s time we have a female president,” Robyn Rieckhoff said.
foxnews is no better than the enquirer or globe or any thrashy tabloid outlet for certain segments of the population. but to address the issue, who cares about hilliary or her daughter. her run is over and we need to here more important news about the issues. lets her some positive spins on obama so this could be a good race for the presidency when he faces mccain.
Attractive?? Yeah, right up there with Amy Carter. Try instead snobbish and repulsive. If she wants to out in front with Mommy Dearest and charge out into the crowd to shake hands and schmooze then she had better get used to answering questions.
Time for a female president, but not just any female. Hillary is not that person!
Goodness gracious, Fox is ridiculous for reporting this and these outraged writers are goofy. Chelsea, and every other American, has the right to freedom of speech. That means she can talk if she wants to and not talk if she doesn’t want to. She was kind to the kid, she just didn’t want to talk. I betcha the kid didn’t go off crying. This is one of those dumb grown up blow ups. AND I’M AN OBAMA SUPPORTER. People are getting pretty desperate for things to complain about. Take a hint from another little girl, Polly Anna: “If you look for the bad in people, you will surely find it.”
You lost me at ‘tall and attractive.’ But I will say it is funny that people think she was rude to the little girl. She is a 9 year old reporter, therefore the press, and she doesn’t talk to the press…. If you want to talk about who is getting ‘pimped out by your parents,’ talk about the little girl… call it a hobby… whatever
BUT,
In the grand picture of life and the world, is this really THAT big of a story to freak out as much as other people have in response to this story? Maybe it’s their hobby, but I still think that they make some pills for that.
Chelsea did the right thing. Nine year old children, especially cute ones, should be seen and not heard. I thought everyone knew that.
Besides, they can’t vote.
Family values talk. I love Family values talk. It’s right up there with Are you saved? - the assumption that everyone MUST believe as you do in order to matter.
Yet another example of the Clinton’s looking out for the Clinton’s.
“I’m sorry, I don’t talk to the press and that applies to you, unfortunately. Even though I think you’re cute,” Chelsea told the pint-sized journalist. Oh no, that’s not rude partonizing a yound child.
Chelsea can say whatever she wants with immunity. She is attempting to influence the public to vote for her mother yet the public can not ask her questions relevant to their decision. The audacity of Chelsea for refusing to answer an innocuous question from a 9-year girl, a journalist for Scholastic News, is unconscionable. I don’t understand how the mother of this 9-year girl can support Hillary’s candidacy. The lack openness of Hilary’s campaign is a foreshadowing of whats to come if Hilary should become the president.
Why does Fox news continue to keep this on their website? Hmmmmmmmmmmmm