Chelsea Clinton On Hillary, And Running For Office

Chelsea Clinton at CGIU Image by Getty Images

By Anne Cohen April 8, 2013

In an intriguing interview on Monday’s “Today Show,” Chelsea Clinton said that she would be open to running for office someday.

“Right now I’m grateful to live in a city, in a state and a country where I strongly support my mayor, my governor, my president, my senators and my representative,” she said, adding that “If at some point that weren’t true and I thought I could make a meaningful and measurably greater impact, I’d have to ask and answer that question.”

As for whether or not her mother, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, will be running for president in 2016, anything is possible.

“I deeply respect and appreciate all of the admiration and respect and gratitude for my mother’s service,” Clinton said. “As a daughter, I very much want her to make the right choice for herself. I know that will be the right choice for our country, and I’ll support her in whatever she chooses to do.”

After years of shrinking from the spotlight, Chelsea Clinton has stepped up her game. She recently took a leading role at CGIU, the Clinton Global Initiative’s meeting for college students, where she appeared with daddy Bill and moderated panels and discussions, and appeared on the cover of Parade on Sunday.

Surprisingly, Chelsea doesn’t attribute her interest in public service to her parents, but rather to her grandmother, Hillary’s mother, who died in 2011. “She probably didn’t think of it as urging,” Chelsea told “Today,” “she definitely thought of it as, you know, grandmotherly nagging, and she exercised that prerogative often.”

Bubbe knows best.

Watch the whole interview here:

Anne Cohen was the Forward’s deputy digital media editor. When she’s not looking for the secret Jewish history of Voodoo in New Orleans, or making lists about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she writes for The Assimilator. She graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism with an M.S. magazine concentration in 2012.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO