ITHACA — One day before the New York primary, Chelsea Clinton arrived in Ithaca to campaign on behalf of her mother.
For about an hour, Chelsea spoke about the issues that Hillary Clinton has been running on, including gun control, education funding, abortion, and the effects of the Citizens United case.
“It’s hard for me as my mom’s daughter to hear anyone say that they care more about overturning Citizens United than my mom, because for her it’s ethical, but it’s also personal,” she said. “It’s about removing the perverse equations of corporation equals person and person equals corporation, as well as money equals speech and speech equals money.”
Following Chelsea’s presentation, attendees asked questions about Hillary Clinton’s opinion on fracking, a hot-button issue for the area.
“It isn’t necessarily methane,” she said, in response to one attendee’s question about how a proposed methane ban could hurt fracking efforts. “I hate to quote Republicans, but I’m not a scientist, so I try to listen to what the scientists from the EPA and otherwise say, which is why my mom has said we should absolutely have a ban on methane.”
During the time that the younger Clinton spoke she was interrupted twice by protesters. One of them was Ariel Gold from the organization Code Pink, who interrupted the talk and held up a large banner denouncing support for repressive regimes.
After Gold was escorted out of the event, she continued her protest outside.
“Hillary Clinton has pledged recently and throughout her political career, unconditional support, both diplomatic and through U.S. military aid, to the state of Israel, despite its continuing human rights abuses,” she said.
Elan Shapiro, a member of We Are Seneca Lake, was another protester. The group has made local headlines while protesting the Crestwood Midstream Facility’s plans to store gas along Seneca Lake.
“Hillary may sound like she’s practical and efficient, maybe more so than Bernie, but where’s she taking us?” he said. “It’s more of the same corporate economy with tiny little liberal improvements.”
A student group also stood in unison to recite a prepared statement, and then marched out of the event. About two dozen protesters total came to today’s event.
