SIOUX CITY | Chelsea Clinton told a crowd of 125 people in Sioux City Wednesday that her mother is poised to govern in a way that Republican Donald Trump cannot and urged longtime dissenters to look anew at her mother's record.
Chelsea Clinton spoke at the downtown Orpheum Theatre, where her mother, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, also held an event with more than 500 people in January. Most of the 35-minute event Wednesday was devoted to questions from the audience.
Garie Lewis, of Sioux City, questioned Chelsea about the strong invective people feel against her mother, citing "smear campaigns since 1992." People criticized Hillary Clinton in the 1990s when she helped husband President Bill Clinton in an attempt to reform the health care system and in the 2016 campaign for her use of a private email server when handling official duties as Secretary of State.
"They don't like her, they hate her...How does she break that?" Lewis asked.
Chelsea said her mother is an accomplished defender of working class people. But she acknowledged the vigor of criticisms towards her mother, going back to when she said her mother was besmirched in 1986 when her father was running for governor in Arkansas.
"I don't remember a time in my life when my mom wasn't being attacked," Chelsea. "There has been this massive cognitive disconnect between the caricature of my mom and my lived experience of her as my mom."
Chelsea said her mother is poised to address concerns of climate change, raise the federal hourly minimum wage and defend the 2010 health care reform Affordable Care Act.
"I would just urge the people that you (Lewis) are talking to to look at the record of her life. Look at all the things that she has actually done against all the things that she has been accused of that she hasn't done and there has never been any proof for," Chelsea said.
Trump, a billionaire businessman, and Hillary Clinton are locked in a close contest in the battleground state of Iowa. Chelsea led a continued push for early voting in Iowa, leading up to the Nov. 8 election day.
Chelsea also spoke in the city earlier in the year, when she introduced her mother on Jan. 31, two days before the Iowa caucuses, which Hillary narrowly won over Democratic challenger Bernie Sanders.
Chelsea preceded the city event with one in Dubuque, Iowa. Hillary Clinton's team also had another major surrogate in the state on Wednesday. Sanders was the Democratic candidate who competed with Clinton well into summer primary contests.
Republican National Committee Iowa Communications Director Lindsay Jancek said Clinton's campaign is sputtering in the attempt to land voters.
“Hillary Clinton has a millennial problem and is desperate to convince young people to trust her. But why should they after last week’s leaked audio of Hillary mocking Bernie Sanders’ supporters? Clinton’s dishonesty and lies have demonstrated she is the wrong person to lead our country," Jancek said.
