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# Backtrack
Hillary Clinton apologises over comments about Nancy Reagan and AIDS
Clinton was speaking on the day of Reagan’s funeral.
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HILLARY CLINTON HAS apologised for praising Nancy Reagan’s work on HIV and AIDS, saying she ‘misspoke’.
The funeral of former US First Lady Nancy Reagan was held today but Clinton has been forced into an embarrassing apology after facing a backlash over her comments.
Earlier today, Clinton had said that Reagan and the former President had ‘started a conversation about AIDS’.
Speaking on MSNBC, Clinton said:
It might be hard for your viewers to remember how difficult it was for people to talk about HIV/AIDS in the 1980s. And because of both President and Mrs. Reagan, in particular Mrs. Reagan, we started a national conversation when before no one would talk about it, nobody wanted to do anything about it.
But her comments sparked bewilderment among people who remembered gay activists finding it difficult to secure federal funding to help fight the disease.
There was a perception at the time that Reagan’s reluctance was a hesitation in being seeing to help something that was seen as an issue for gay people.
People online were not slow in pointing out Clinton’s error.
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A few hours later, Clinton issued an apology, saying she misspoke.
