Fox News media analyst Lauren Ashburn speculated on Sunday that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may have "planned" her daughter Chelsea's pregnancy to coincide with a 2016 presidential bid.
April 20, 2014

Fox News media analyst Lauren Ashburn speculated on Sunday that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may have "planned" her daughter Chelsea's pregnancy to coincide with a 2016 presidential bid.

After the younger Clinton announced that she was expecting a child last week, so-called "Chelsea Truthers" in the conservative media began dropping hints that the timing may not have been a coincidence.

During a Sunday panel segment on Fox News' Media Buzz, host Howard Kurtz asked, "Are we perhaps over-analyzing, over-thinking what ought to be a routine, joyous occasion?"

"You've been in this town for how many years, and you don't have a cynical bone in your body?" Ashburn quipped. "I think a lot of reporters think maybe this was planned."

"Maybe this was planned!" Kurtz exclaimed. "You don't think that Chelsea Clinton and her husband are entitled to try to have a baby whenever they want? And by the way, if it was going to be planned, it would be planned for next year when the campaign might actually be underway!"

Fox News contributor Jim Pinkerton offered the theory that the pregnancy "was a happy providential event, and then the mainstream media, trying to help Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign, decided to make this baby the royal baby."

"Ah!" Ashburn observed. "We have to realize that this is Hillary Clinton, she's most likely running for president, it hasn't been good for her. A lot of people say she's too old. And so, there is coverage."

Kurtz pointed out that former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was a grandfather when he ran in 2012.

"But people didn't say he was too old to run!" Ashburn replied.

"Isn't this kind of sexist?" Kurtz wondered. "Come on."

"Are you baiting me? What is that called? Sex baiting?" Ashburn shot back, adding, "No, of course it's not."

"You're wrong," Kurtz concluded.

Watch the video below from Fox News' Media Buzz, broadcast April 20, 2014.

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