Yahoo News Chelsea Clinton tells trolls to lay off Barron Trump as she talks about friendship with Ivanka
Chelsea Clinton has urged people to lay off Donald Trump’s son Barron, saying she feels "very protective" of the teenager.
Ms Clinton, 40, the only child of former president Bill Clinton and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, made the comments as she discussed the abuse she receives online.
She told the Jemele Hill is Unbothered podcast: "I think he was 11 when his dad won and that's a year younger than I was when my dad took office. Like, he's a kid.
"Don't objectify this kid. I think he just turned 14. He's a teenager, leave him alone."
Ms Clinton said she has no issues with criticism of President Trump, whom she described as "a racist, Islamophobic, antisemitic, misogynistic, transphobic human being" on the podcast — but said people should lay off Barron.
"I will, you know, have a whole lot of sympathy for any critiques, criticism, pain, anger you want to hurl at his parents," she said. "But leave him alone."
Ms Clinton also spoke about the "intense" vitriol she receives online adding that it "definitely" affects her.
"Everything that people say to me on Twitter, they say to me in person," she said.
"Like, 'I wish you were dead.’ 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 and then maybe your mother would have had a different reaction'.
"You're always like — what else can you say? 'I’m so sorry you feel that way. I wish you nothing but the best, hope you have a better day tomorrow.' You know?"
As well as Barron, the former first daughter said she feels protective of other presidents' children, including Jenna and Barbara Bush and Sasha and Malia Obama– describing their bond as a “sorority of sorts.”
"I very much felt protective of the Bush twins who were just a little bit younger than me and certainly very protective of Sasha and Malia,” she said. “I wanted them to have as normal a life as possible. I knew that was going to be hard.”
Ms Clinton also discussed her former friendship with Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen.
"I've not spoken to her since 2016 and I have no interest in being friends with someone who is not only complicit but actively taking part in this administration's every day collision of cruelty and incompetence," she said.
"We were in touch at the beginning of the campaign. But it's just really hard when there's someone who's actively embracing their candidate -- whether it's their father or not -- who is trafficking in racism and sexism and anti-semitism and Islamophobia and homophobia and transphobia and conspiracy theories and lies and is so fundamentally corrupt.”
She added: "I don't think [Ivanka and her father] are the same by any standard, but I think she's more than complicit, as anyone who has worked for him for so long by definition is. And I don't want to be friends with someone like that."
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