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In a series of campaign events in the Salt Lake City area Tuesday, Chelsea Clinton described her mother as a persistent, realistic fighter and a presidential candidate well suited to protect American values here and abroad.
Her visit on behalf of Hillary Clinton marks the first in what is expected to be a series of stopovers by presidential candidates and their high-powered surrogates in the days leading up to Utah's presidential caucus vote next Tuesday.
Chelsea Clinton, 36 and now pregnant with her second child, said she cannot think of a time in her life when she wasn't involved in the political campaigns of her father, former President Bill Clinton, her mother, a former U.S. senator, or one of their friends. And yet, she says she's more invested now.
"I didn't know I could care any more about politics until I became a parent and I realized whoever we elect as our president will play such a profound role in shaping the country, the world and really our future that my children and our children will grow up in," she said. She is also more concerned about the political environment, she added, feeling that "everything I care most about is at risk," mentioning health care, education, immigration reform, climate change, gun control and the future of the Supreme Court.
She criticized Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for his campaign's focus on Wall Street reform, saying, "We don't live in a single-issue country; we can't afford to have a single-issue president."
But she leveled far tougher criticism at Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner, for what she sees as pure bigotry.
"The almost normalization of hate speech out of the Republican debates, rallies, speeches is really astonishing," she said. "And the policy proposals that float from that, to build a wall around our country, to keep a list of every American Muslim. When my husband, who is Jewish, first heard that, his first reaction was the last time lists were kept based on religion, members of my family died in the Holocaust. He looked at me and said, 'I hope every Jewish American is horrified by this,' and I looked at him and said, 'Every American should be horrified by this divisive, bigoted rhetoric.' "
She made these comments during her first stop of the day at La Puente on State Street, where she addressed more than 50 Latino leaders. Wearing a black jacket with her mother's signature H pin on the lapel, Chelsea Clinton hugged Viola Tovar, the owner of the restaurant, who has been a political supporter of the Clintons for years. Tovar said she was proud to host the former first daughter, while part of her motivation this year comes from fear.
"I'm really concerned about Trump for my grandkids and great-grandkids if he becomes president," she said. "I think if you have brown skin, you are going to have trouble with Trump."
Chelsea Clinton also embraced Celina Milner, a Democratic candidate for the state Senate, who said that Hillary Clinton has been "an inspirational woman to me."
Milner said she's supporting the former secretary of state because of her experience, but also because "she is strong enough ... because the first woman president is going to be raked over the coals."
Chelsea Clinton said she came to Utah to show voters that her mother wants their support in this primary campaign. Hillary Clinton has a more than 200-delegate lead on Sanders and unless there is a major shift in upcoming primaries, she appears poised to claim the Democratic nomination that eluded her in 2008, when she ran against Barack Obama. Utah will award 37 delegates proportionately to the candidates based on Tuesday's caucus vote.
The former first daughter also appeared at a rally at the Clinton Utah campaign headquarters, speaking before more than 70 people stuffed in a small room before she greeted more than 150 supporters who lined the hallways. After a lunch fundraiser, she also spoke to a group of prominent women Democrats at the home of Diane Stewart.
At these events, she warned that Democrats are unlikely to win back the U.S. House until at least 2022, so she argued that to make progress on major issues, voters need to elect someone who can work with both parties.
As an example, she said after her mother's signature health-care proposal was defeated in the early 1990s, Hillary Clinton worked with Republicans, including Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, to create the Children's Health Insurance Program.
She also said Democrats need to "protect" the Affordable Care Act and push it forward, by pressuring states that have yet to expand Medicaid. "I won't name any names," she said in an obvious reference to Utah's small step toward expanding Medicaid.
Chelsea Clinton showed a detailed knowledge of her mother's biography and policy positions, so it wasn't surprising when a supporter asked if the daughter might run when her mother leaves the political stage. Chelsea Clinton said she's been asked that throughout her life and it has been "a real gift." She said more people, particularly young people, should be encouraged to seek public office. But to directly answer the question, she said: "The answer is no," because she likes and agrees with her local representatives from the City Council in New York City right up to the president.
The crowd responded with a collective eye roll and a chuckle, reflecting their lot in one of the most conservative states in the nation.
She also took a question from Sam, a 4-year-old boy, who asked what it was like to live in the White House. Chelsea Clinton said living there when her father was president was both "extraordinary and ordinary." Her parents asked her what she did at school or about her ballet lessons, and they had dinner together most nights. But she never forgot that she lived in the White House and the history there.
This was Chelsea Clinton's fifth campaign stop in the past week, after visits to such states as Michigan and North Carolina. She's on her way back to New York to visit her family and check in at the Clinton Foundation, where she still works.