Chelsea Clinton visited “The View” this week to break down what her family’s foundation actually does and explain her role in its philanthropic efforts around the world.
The Clinton Foundation has become a hot-button topic in the presidential campaign. Some have called on President Clinton, who founded the organization and serves on its board alongside Chelsea, to step down should Hillary Clinton be elected president. Others want to see the organization shuttered altogether.
But the former First Daughter pushed back against such criticism, offering up a couple of recent initiatives undertaken by the foundation as evidence of its continuing value.
She said students across America are safer now that an arm of the organization called the Clinton Health Matters Initiative has partnered with Adapt Pharma to provide every U.S. high school with an opioid overdose reversal medication called naloxone.
In 2014, 168,000 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 were addicted to opioid pain relievers, according to the American Society of Addiction Medicine. And about 18,000 adolescents abused heroin, another opioid, that year.
“No child should ever die because of an overdose in our country,” Clinton said during the segment.
Clinton also pointed to the foundation’s Healthy Schools Program, which she said has brought healthier meals and more physical activity options, among other wellness initiatives, to 18 million students in the U.S.
But Clinton acknowledged that “changes have to be made.” She said the foundation would bar corporate and foreign donations and spin off its international programs into independent entities should her mom get elected.
The group already announced that the foundation’s Clinton Health Access Initiative, which aims to reduce the cost of HIV medications in sub-Saharan Africa, would become completely independent if Hillary Clinton becomes president.
Chelsea Clinton said she would help the organization with its transitions and then determine the best fit for herself within the group.
“I’m committed to helping steward that transition,” she said, “because it is complicated.”