Chelsea Clinton slams 'racist' Trump but feels protective of Barron

Chelsea Clinton has detailed the most vile and violent comments trolls have made to her in person, while attacking President Donald Trump in a furious rant, branding him ‘racist’ and ‘misogynistic’.    

The 40-year-old former First Daughter candidly spoke out about the hatred she faces both online and in-person during an appearance on Spotify podcast ‘Jemele Hill is Unbothered,’ and despite slamming Trump, she admitted that she feels ‘protective’ over his teenage son Barron.

Chelsea explained that her own experiences — like growing up in the White House — have given her particular compassion for other children of Presidents, with Chelsea saying that she feels a great deal of compassion for the Bush twins, the Obama girls, and Barron, the latter of whom she thinks should be left alone because he is still just a kid.

When Jemele noted that Chelsea faces a lot of cruel comments on social media, the daughter of former President Bill Clinton replied that it’s not just on the internet — it’s in real life, too. 

‘Everything that people say to me on Twitter, they say to me in person,’ she said.

‘Like, “I wish you were dead,”‘ she offered as an example. ‘I’m sorry you feel that way. “I wish your mother aborted you.” I’m sorry you feel that way. “I wish you had died in Benghazi because then maybe your mother would have had a different reaction.” 

‘Like, “I hope your children die so your family’s line dies with you,”‘ she went on. ‘Like, “I hope your kids wind up in ashes, like that’s where all Jewish kids should wind up.”

‘The amount of hate is so intense,’ she said. ‘Thankfully, it doesn’t happen often, but it definitely happens. 

‘You’re always like, what else can you say? Like, I’m so sorry you feel that way. I don’t feel that way about your kids. I wish you nothing but the best, hope you have a better day tomorrow. You know?’

Chelsea has famously been the victim of a particularly harsh brand of vitriol, both as an adult and as a child, and even knows what it’s like to be mocked and ridiculed on national TV as a teenager with famous parents — so she feels for other who have been in the same position, including President Trump’s 14-year-old son, Barron.

‘I very much felt protective of the Bush twins [Jenna and Barbara], who were just a little bit younger than me, and certainly very protective of Sasha and Malia [Obama], because I wanted them to have as normal a life as possible.’

She said she feels ‘very protective of’ Barron as well. 

‘I think he was 11 when his dad won, and that’s a year younger than I was like when my dad went and took office,’ she said. ‘Like, he’s a kid. He’s a kid, leave him alone. 

‘Who knows what he’s going to be like when he grows up? That’s none of our business. 

‘And I really don’t like it when people comment on the clothing choices of when Sasha, Malia were there, or Barron Trump, I’m like, don’t objectify this kid. 

‘I think he just turned 14. He’s a teenager, leave him alone.’

His father, though, is a different story, and the former First Daughter had no issue holding back when it came to her opinions about the President, branding him a ‘racist’ human being who has brought a ‘hall of horrors’ upon the country, and adding that the people who put him in office ‘do bear responsibility.’

‘The people who were very transparent about voting because they wanted a tax cut. Okay. But you knew you also were voting for a racist, Islamophobic, antisemitic, misogynistic, transphobic, human being who was going to have a lot of power to manifest those hateful bigoted values into the world,’ she said.

‘So that may be what is your motivation. And that may be the story that you tell yourself, but you can’t then avoid some responsibility for what has happened.

‘Okay, I didn’t know that he was so grossly going to mismanage a global pandemic and constantly be undermining the CDC and the FDA,’ she said. ‘Although I’m not terribly surprised, ’cause he’s trying to win the next election, and that is kind of the only metric of success he cares about, not, like, actually saving Americans lives. 

‘But he told us that he would try to ban immigrants. He told us that he would cut taxes and gut the already too-small social safety net in our country. 

‘He told us repeatedly how he feels about women, so of course it’s not surprising that he’s tried to restrict a woman’s right to choose or women’s ability to access broadly. 

‘You didn’t have to be as engaged as I am [to know] — you just had to listen to one or two of his speeches or tune into one of the debates. He he told us and showed us like who he is repeatedly in 2015 and 2016. 

‘I think we are going lower and lower and lower,’ she added. 

‘I mean, I had a number of worries, concerns, kind of nightmares harbored in my head on January 20th, 2017 as President Obama left the White House and President Trump entered.

‘But I didn’t [dream of] a global pandemic, an acceleration of climate change, the continued desecration of like civil rights, voting rights, not only in the mainstreaming, but like the mainlining of hate against like everyone basically who isn’t like a wealthy white cisgendered male.

‘I knew it was going to be a hall of horrors because he told us so much of what he would do. But the collision of like the cruelty and like the bigotry that is so defined him his whole life, like with just the incompetence, I think has been devastating.

‘The federal government is not where it should be … to help like the basic like protect and preserve of, of human life. And it’s because they just don’t care.’

Still, the mother-of-three tries to stay positive.

‘I try to, just in general, not live in a place of resentment or bitterness, because I just don’t think that’s a healthy place to be. Especially when I was like breastfeeding, I really do believe our emotions flow through our milk. And so I felt this particular responsibility to Jasper, our baby,’ she said. 

‘So I get up every day and I choose to be optimistic and I choose to do what I can as a mother, as an advocate, as a citizen, as a teacher, as an author, to help at least try to create more optimism.

‘Because there is a lot to be really angry about and scared about and cynical about. I think we are living in a moment of such profound cynicism because in this country, the wealthy white patriarchy is strong and they are willing to trample over every law and moral.’

So, she said, she ‘can ether just be really angry about so much’ or she can focus on what it is that she can do to ensure there is ‘less fertile ground’ for hatred and that there ‘are more young people that don’t believe that “toward a more perfect union” should only include people that look like them.’  

Chelsea also touched on some lighter subjects, including her time going to Bible camp as a kid. 

‘We carved soap animals, strangely,’ she recalled. ‘And I could recite every book, in song form, of the new Testament and plot all sorts of biblical quotes.’

And she discussed how her parents, Bill and Hillary Clinton, spoil their grandkids, Aidan, Charlotte, and Jasper. 

‘I have only ever once ever spent like two nights away from our kids and we went to a friend’s wedding,’ she said. ‘So we came back to pick up our kids, we got back from the wedding and [the kids] had eaten ice cream twice a day, after lunch and dinner.’

She said they’d had pizza and hot dogs for lunch and dinner, and even pizza for breakfast one day. 

‘And I was like, what is this? I used to get pizza once a week! I used to get ice cream, like, once a week! And [my parents now] couldn’t even refrain from pizza, like, once a day, or like ice cream once a day? Like, I mean, who are you? And what have you done with my parents? 

‘My mom was like, well, we’re now grandparents. She’s like, it’s your responsibility to work on healthy eating habits. It’s my privilege to be able to break those apart. And yes, like they will love me more for it.   

‘And I was like, what is this? It’s shameless manipulation. And everything I feel like I knew about the world seems to be totally upended in this moment,’ she said. ‘They now only have like limited unsupervised time. It just feels like, you know, it’s too tempting for all of them to just be collectively bad all together.’

Though Bill and Hillary are just loving grandparents in their house, the kids are ‘aware’ of their important place in American history.

‘They’re aware that pop pop was President. And they’re aware that grandma ran for President,’ Chelsea said.

Aiden, in particular, feels ‘connected’ to their legacy because he knows he was in Chelsea’s belly during the 2016 campaign.   

‘But admittedly, we talk a lot more about Donald Trump now, and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. 

‘We talk a lot about coronavirus and how poorly we think Donald Trump has done. That we’re doing our parts, like staying home when we can [and] wearing masks whenever we go outside — and how Donald Trump doesn’t even believe that you should stay home. 

‘Like, he goes golfing all the time or he doesn’t wear a mask and how wrong that is and irresponsible that is. 

‘They know it’s important to wear a mask. So, like, why is the President not wearing a mask?

‘We talk a lot about Donald Trump as a bully,’ she went on. ‘They know that they should treat everyone with respect, [so] why is the President so disrespectful?’

Chelsea said that even though her children are ‘little kids,’ they’re still citizens, and she wants them to ‘grow up understanding that being a good citizen is part of being a good person’.  

Chelsea and her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, plan to fill out mail-in ballots — and will have their kids right there to watch them do it. 

Finally, Chelsea said that she’s considered potentially running for office herself one day — though not right now.

‘I definitely think about it, and I hope everyone thinks about this candidly because clearly we are living in a moment of such clear evidence of who runs for and holds office really matters.’

But right now, she added, ‘the answer is no.’ Chelsea really likes her city council woman, her congresswoman, and her senators — and to run for office, she said, a person needs to believe they’ll do a better job that the person already holding office.