NEW YORK: Chelsea Clinton, the 37-year-old only child of Bill and Hillary Clinton, is fuelling speculation that she could one day run for office — honing her Twitter profile, publishing a new book and becoming increasingly vocal in the wake of her mother’s presidential defeat.
Gone is the publicity-shy former first daughter with bouncy curls — replaced by a tireless liberal campaigner, who last year criss-crossed the country to tell Americans why they should elect her mother the first US woman commander-in-chief.
Her mother’s loss at the polls to a billionaire former reality star has only seemed to fuel Clinton’s ire.
She deluges her 1.7 million followers on Twitter with outrage about Donald Trump’s administration, and thoughts on everything from World Menstrual Hygiene Day to child marriage, as the media devotes column inches to whether she will run for office.
Chelsea’s official line is she’s not — but in true politician style, she often couches those denials with caveats such as “right now, no.”
That speculation returned to the fore Tuesday with the publication of her third book — a 28 page hardback picture book for children called “She Persisted” about 13 diverse US women who “changed the world.”
Her mother makes only a cameo appearance but included in the line-up are Oprah Winfrey, deaf and blind champion Helen Keller, former slave Harriet Tubman, the first American woman in space Sally Ride and Olympic sprint champion Florence Griffith Joyner.
The title was inspired by a phrase used to silence left-leaning Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren — an expression adopted as a rallying cry for female opposition to Trump’s Republican administration.
Published by Penguin Random House, pre-orders made the book a number one best-seller on Amazon’s list of women biographies for children.
“I’m far more focused on what we do to protect and advance progress than what happened last year,” Clinton told NBC’s Today Show on Tuesday, when asked how the family had dealt with her mother’s loss to Trump six months ago.
“I don’t know if that’s just in my DNA or if it’s trying to live up to the example that my parents have always set for me that we always look toward the future.” — AFP
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