Leave it to this former First Lady to get real. Hillary Clinton weighed in on the controversial childhood vaccination debate on Monday, Feb. 2, pulling the grandmother card to emphasize her stance.
The former Secretary of State joined the side of doctors in the ongoing medical debate, saying America’s children should be vaccinated against diseases like measles and more. While emphasizing her point, President Bill Clinton‘s wife referred to her status as grandma to 4-month-old granddaughter Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky.
The science is clear: The earth is round, the sky is blue, and #vaccineswork. Let’s protect all our kids. #GrandmothersKnowBest
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) February 3, 2015
Since baby Charlotte’s birth last September, both Hillary and Bill have expressed their joy at being first-time grandparents. “It’s amazing,” Bill told Ellen DeGeneres last November. “Hillary and I only have one child and she’s quite wonderful, but it’s been a long time since she’s been that age. So the biggest hoot for me, my granddaughter turned six weeks on Friday, is watching them wake up to the world.”
His wife Hillary’s very blunt tweet supports President Obama, who urged parents on Monday, Feb. 2, to get their children vaccinated after a recent outbreak of measles, which originated at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. “The fact is that a major success of our civilization is our ability to prevent disease that in the past have devastated folks,” President Obama told new mom Savannah Guthrie in a Today show interview. “And measles is preventable.”
Following the President’s sit-down, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Rand Paul made remarks about freedom of “choice” in the immunization issue. Christie told reporters on Monday that parents deserved to have “some measure of choice” when it came to vaccinations, but his office later issued a statement that read: “There is no question kids should be vaccinated.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Paul vocalized in several interviews that he believes immunizations should be “voluntary,” calling it “an issue of freedom and public health.”
Other celebrities to join the debate include Kristin Cavallari and Jenny McCarthy, both of whom have publicly linked vaccinations to autism, inciting outrage from critics. Former View co-host Joy Behar was not one to hold back from unleashing her opinion on McCarthy’s stance while appearing on Morning Joe on Tuesday, Feb. 3.
“My friend Jenny McCarthy is in the middle of this,” Behar said on the MSNBC program. “She said it caused autism back then. Now presidential candidates are agreeing with her! So my feeling is: Why doesn’t Jenny run for president?”
She added: “This is this neanderthal thinking on the right that is really scary and dangerous.”
