so getting bin laden i think was, for her, such an important way to close a chapter, a very painful chapter. not long after a more personal chapter was about to close with her mother dorothy. she was such a great support to me during my entire life but she lived with us the last ten years of her life so she was just there every day, and she gave me a lot of good feedback and advice. on november 1st, 2011, dorothy rodham passed away. when hillary was traveling as secretary of state, she d leave the light on on the piano and wait for her to come home. the first time she went away after her mom died and she was coming back from a trip, i know she was upset about coming home to the house without her mom there. and bill and chelsea came in from new york to be in washington.
the morning after admitting the affair, bill clinton and his family left to go on vacation. the world was watching. you know, she was angry, she was upset. it s an iconic photograph with chelsea in the middle, and i think at that point that s who was keeping them together, chelsea. chelsea. yeah. there s no program. it s the president s birthday. the president and first lady have shown little affection following the grand jury testimony. this is a family that s got some healing to do. how difficult was it to go through something so private, so personal under the glare of the spotlight of the first lady? it was really hard.
as hillary had done for 18 years would be much harder. how difficult is it for you to hear so many people harshly criticize your mother? well, it s just been something i ve got i don t know accustomed to over my life. i mean, i don t remember a time when my mom wasn t be attacked. charges of sex, lies and audiotapes. there is not a sexual relationship, that is accurate. january 1998, halfway through chelsea s freshman year, news broke that bill clinton had an affair with white house intern monica lewinsky. he denied it. i want to you listen to me. i m going to say this again. i did not have sexual relations with that woman, miss lewinsky. and as she had done so many times before, hillary stood by her husband.
would get there at midnight. we would leave at 8 and she d have left at 7. and it was extraordinary to watch. clinton turned up the heat. shame on you, barack obama! her debate performances were more aggressive. we finally did the 3 a.m. spot that would become iconic. it s 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep but there s a phone in the white house and it s ringing. and chelsea clinton emerged as a force on the trail. i wound up doing like more than 400 events in less than six months. i think in 40 states. sometimes two people showed up, sometimes 1,200 people showed up. some called it the chelsea effect. whenever she appeared, the gap between her mother and obama seemed to shrink. i need to go tell anyone and everyone who may have an iota of interest in listening to me why i m so passionately supporting my mom as a daughter, as a
if something did break or there was a mess, hillary made sure chelsea cleaned it up. the kids were watching a movie and hillary went down when it concluded and discovered there was popcorn all over the theater. and she said to them, you are not leaving here till you pick up every kernel of that popcorn. from the beginning the clintons asked the press to steer clear of chelsea. she and president clinton were adamant about maintaining a zone of privacy around chelsea. hillary had spent a lot of time talking to jackie kennedy onassis about that, about how to raise young children in the white house. and how to raise a teen-ager. imagine having your date pick you up at the white house and your father is the president. my father would intimidate them, as i think any father, oh, just, you know, kind of quite sternly standing there at the top of the stairs as they had to walk up and say i m here to take