With the election less than two months away, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump just faced off in the most-watched presidential debate in American history. The importance of the debate for both candidates cannot be understated: Clinton's performance was seen as pivotal in widening the single-digit lead she had over Trump, and Trump had the chance to narrow, if not close, that polling gap, while showing voters that he has what it takes to be president. On the morning after the first presidential debate, in honor of National Voter Registration Day, Chelsea Clinton sat down with Cosmopolitan.com to talk about the debate, why you need to vote, her mother's decision to keep her recent illness from constituents, and more.

After the debate, Donald Trump said he was "proud" that he didn’t mention your father’s infidelity out of respect for you. What was your reaction to that?

Well, my reaction to that is just what my reaction has been kind of every time Trump has gone after my mom or my family, which is that it’s a distraction from his inability to talk about what’s actually at stake in this election and to offer concrete, comprehensive proposals about the economy, or our public school system, or debt-free college, or keeping our country safe and Americans safe here at home and around the world.

And candidly, I don’t remember a time in my life when my parents and my family weren’t being attacked, and so it just sort of seems to be in that tradition, unfortunately. And what I find most troubling by far are Trump’s — and we talked about this when you interviewed me the night before the Iowa caucus — are Trump’s continued, relentless attacks on whole swaths of our country and even our global community: women, Muslims, Americans with disabilities, a Gold Star family. I mean, that, to me, is far more troubling than whatever his most recent screed against my mom or my family [is].

One of your mom's biggest hurdles with younger voters is gaining their trust. Why do you think she did not tell voters sooner that she had pneumonia?

Well, I didn’t know that she had pneumonia. I didn’t know she had pneumonia until she came over to my apartment. So I don’t think it was a conscious choice. I mean, she didn’t even tell me. I think she just expected she would power through it as she has always powered through everything. As her daughter, I wish she would have listened to her doctor and taken a couple days off when her doctor told her she needed to get some rest, and I’m grateful she did finally listen to her doctor and she took a couple days off. And I think it was clear last night that she is — you know, she certainly looks healthier at her age than I feel at 36 at this moment. I loved her answer about stamina, and yes, I think when anyone has traveled to 112 countries and a million miles, and sat through 11 hours of congressional hearings all in one day, they can then kind of have that conversation with my mom. But until then, I think that she wins that argument any and every day.

Bernie Sanders endorsed your mom after she won the primary. Though many Millennials supported him, according to a recent NBC poll, 44 percent of them are now backing Gary Johnson and Jill Stein. Why do you think so many Millennials have not followed Sanders into the Clinton camp, and how can Clinton gain their votes in the next six weeks?

Oh, well, first, since we’re talking about National Voter Registration Day, I hope everyone’s registered to vote. So, although there is this kind of narrative about what Millennials quote-un-quote are doing at large in terms of their support, I’m really focused on ensuring every Millennial, every American of every age, is registered to vote because I think if you’re not registered to vote, then you obviously can’t participate come Election Day or through early voting if you live in a state where that’s a possibility.

I think voting is intensely personal. People should vote for whomever they think best articulates the vision that they want to see for our country and whom they think has the best ability to achieve that vision. I would just urge young voters to actually look at what the different candidates are offering and look at the different experiences of the different candidates to determine whether or not they think there is the chance of being able to do that.

Gary Johnson and the Libertarian Party want to get rid of the public school system in our country. [Editor's note: Johnson says that under his plan, "public schools are not going to go away," but he does not believe the federal government should have a role in public education and wants to get rid of the Department of Education.] If that’s what you believe, then you should actually support him. I think the public school system in our country has been one of the greatest, if not the greatest, investment of our values of the belief that everyone and anyone should have the chance to, as my mom says, "live up to their God-given potential." We have a lot of work to do to ensure that that is true in every school district and every school in our country. But I don’t think the work that we have to do entails getting rid of the public school system. So, I would hope that if Millennials care about debt-free college, the ability to not be crushed by student loan debt, they’ll look at what my mom and Trump as well as Jill Stein and Gary Johnson are offering, and they’ll find that actually my mom is the only person offering a plan.

Or if we think about climate change, something else I often hear young people care intensely about, Trump doesn’t recognize climate change is real. He’s called it a hoax started by the Chinese. That’s very different than my mom. Also if you look at what Gary Johnson and Jill Stein are talking about, there’s rhetoric. There’s no specific plans on their websites, there’s no kind of vision for how climate change actually can be a call to action to invest in renewable energy and build a stronger economy and create more jobs, and that’s what my mom is offering.

Look at criminal justice reforms, something else I often hear about from Millennials as being a real focus in this election. I think we saw in the debate last night the very real differences between my mom and Trump. My mom’s first policy speech in this campaign was about criminal justice reform, and similarly, she’s the only candidate who has a very detailed plan for what she thinks we need to do, from tackling implicit bias in our police departments and our prosecutors’ offices as well as in our country at large and the moral obligation that we all have to be engaged in that work, to sentencing reform, to second-chance programs, and so much more.

So I would just urge voters — and particularly young voters — to look at what the candidates are saying because I do think this is the most important presidential election of my lifetime, and I think everything we each care about — recognizing that we all care about different things — but everything we each care about is really at stake, and I think there are just very, very clear differences across all the candidates, and who’s really prepared and ready to lead our country, and I would argue my mom is head and shoulders above everyone else.

What would you say to Millennials who are considering not voting on Election Day?

I just don’t even understand why that would be a consideration. I think everything that we all care about is at stake. You know, I would never tell a Millennial or anyone what they should care most about, but I think we all care about something. For my mom, "Stronger Together" is not just a slogan. I think that’s a very different view of our country than what Trump is talking about. Whether it’s a specific policy, things that we’ve talked about, climate change, which she thinks is an urgent threat and also an opportunity for our country, which he doesn’t recognize is a reality. Whether it’s things that we haven’t talked about yet like gun control. All of that is at risk in this election.

So I would just ask people to think about that and get registered today because it’s National Voter Registration Day, and then vote. And I would also say I would hope that’s something that people will think about and engage in in every election because while a president has enormous possibilities, the president also faces constitutional constraints. So much of what we’ve talked about, the president can make real progress on her own, but in other areas, she needs strong partners in Congress, and she needs strong partners at the governors' level throughout this country, and she needs strong partners at the mayoral level, and the city council level, and the school board level.

So please don’t just tune in for this election. Please, please, please tune in for this election and for every election that you can vote in.

Election Day is Nov. 8. If you haven't registered to vote yet, you can do so here.



Follow Prachi on Twitter.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misquoted Chelsea Clinton on the number of countries Hillary Clinton traveled to as Secretary of State. She traveled to 112.

Prachi Gupta Prachi Gupta is an award-winning journalist based in New York.

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