It was an invite by email only.
Via Politico
It was an April announcement in Brooklyn from Hillary Clinton – but it had little to do with her presidential campaign or its headquarters.
Clinton on Wednesday emerged for her first public event in two weeks, joining a roundtable discussion at a public school in the Brownsville neighborhood to discuss new initiatives urging parents to talk, read and sing to their babies. Clinton appeared at the event with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, who introduced her as “my friend.”
“We were so struck by the brain research,” Clinton told a group of at least a dozen parents, of the importance of being verbal with babies.
By the time children are four-years-old, middle- and higher-income kids hear 30 million more words than their lower-income counterparts. “You are literally building your baby’s brain, to better prepare that little boy or little girl to do well in school and do well in life,” Clinton said.
In her all-but-announced presidential campaign, Clinton is expected to focus on decades of work fighting for the rights of women and girls — Thursday’s non-political event gave her an opportunity to sit in a classroom and talk about early childhood development. The event also provided Clinton with a nice photo op with McCray, a longtime ally who with de Blasio could prove to be a valuable surrogate in winning over the restive progressive side of the Democratic party.
Together, Clinton and McCray announced the “Talking is Teaching Community Campaign Guide,” a Clinton Foundation initiative, billed as a roadmap for local leaders to help boost early childhood brain development. They also unveiled the city’s new “talk to your baby” public awareness campaign.[…]
Parents who speak Spanish to their babies are still helping set a foundation for them to better learn English, she said, noting that it would actually put them ahead of the former secretary of state.
“I’m barely monolingual,” she joked.
Clinton and McCray did not take any questions from the press. But when a reporter asked her as she was leaving the room whether she will be a regular in Brooklyn – the expected site of her campaign headquarters – Clinton smiled.
HT: Dan Riehl