Chelsea Clinton took a rare step into the spotlight over the weekend, raising her profile with a visible role in her father’s public service agency and acknowledging the intense speculation about the possibility of her mother, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, making a White House run in 2016. She also left the door open to running for public office herself someday.
“I deeply respect and appreciate all of the admiration and respect and gratitude for my mother's service,” the former first daughter said in an interview that aired on TODAY Monday. “As a daughter, I very much want her to make the right choice for herself, and I know that will be (the) right choice for our country, and I’ll support her in whatever she chooses to do.”
Clinton has raised her visibility by helping run Clinton Global Initiative University, an annual meeting that her father's service agency holds for college students. Over the weekend, Clinton moderated panels and hosted sessions at the CGI U meeting in St. Louis, where the topics ranged from human trafficking to childhood mortality.
She also took time out to address whether she’d be open to following in the political footsteps of her mother and dad, former president Bill Clinton.
“Right now I'm grateful to live in a city, a state and a country where I strongly support my mayor, my governor, my president and my senators and my representative,” said Clinton, who is a special NBC News correspondent. “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.”
Clinton also spoke to that issue in Parade magazine, saying she used to dismiss the idea of running for office until her mother’s 2008 campaign.
In both interviews, Clinton credits her maternal grandmother, Dorothy Rodham, for steering her into a more active role in public service.
“She probably didn't think of it as urging – she definitely thought of it as, you know, grandmotherly nagging, and she exercised that prerogative often,” Clinton said.
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