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Chelsea Clinton Pushes Back on 'False' Claim in New Book, Says She Didn't Pop Champagne on Election Night

Chelsea Clinton
Chelsea Clinton / Getty Images
April 20, 2018

Chelsea Clinton on Friday called out New York Times reporter Amy Chozick for claiming the former first daughter popped Champagne on the night of the 2016 presidential election and poured it into Hillary Clinton campaign staffers' glasses.

The Times published an excerpt of Chozick's new book—Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, and One Intact Glass Ceiling, which will be released on Tuesday—discussing the Clinton campaign's experience on election night.

"Things were already looking bad when Chelsea Clinton popped the Champagne," Chozick writes. "It was just after 9 p.m. on election night and she was having her hair and makeup done in the family's suite at the Peninsula hotel. She stopped to pour what somebody told me was Veuve Clicquot into everyone's glasses, figuring that in a couple of hours Donald Trump's run of early victories in red states (West Virginia, Oklahoma, Alabama) would end and the map would turn back in her mom's favor."

Clinton fired back on Twitter, telling Chozick that her account of events is "false" and that she "would have been happy" to say what happened that night if she had asked.

"Hi @amychozick! The 1st line ("Things were already looking bad when Chelsea Clinton popped the Champagne") is false," Clinton wrote. "I would have been happy to tell you that if you'd asked, which you didn't. Looking forward to the correction once you fact check. Thanks!"

Philippe Reines, a longtime Clinton loyalist and former senior adviser to Hillary Clinton at the State Department, responded to the former first daughter's tweet by taking a shot at Chozick for calling him a "possible sociopath" in her book.

"Careful Chelsea. If you have the audacity to criticize Amy's practices she might label you a misogynistic sociopath," Reines tweeted.

Reines also linked to a Jezebel article that included his response to Chozick's book.

"I haven't read the book so I'm just working off what you sent. Given the topic let me make clear this is ON the record. Please include in its entirety," Reines said. "Amy deserves credit for confessing. Because anyone who's seen Thank You for Smoking knows the problem isn't Aaron Eckhart's language or behavior, it's Katie Holmes's ethics and tactics. I said it then, I'd say it again today. Oh, one more thing: she and Caroline [Carolyn] Ryan should know this about my own book I'm currently writing: there are tapes. And unlike some, I don't bluff."