Hillary Clinton retracted her praise of the Reagans’ AIDS activism during an interview prior to Nancy Reagans funeral.
“While the Reagans were strong advocates for stem cell research finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, I misspoke about their record on HV and AIDS. For that, I’m sorry,” Clinton tweeted on Friday afternoon after many balked at her praise of the Reagan’s HIV advocacy on MSNBC.
“It may 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 national conversation when before no one would talk about it, no one wanted to do anything about it, and that too is something that I really appreciate, with her very effective, low-key advocacy, but it penetrated the public conscience and people began to say ‘Hey, we have to do something about this too,” Clinton originally said on MSNBC.
Activists took offense, arguing that the Reagans paid too little attention to the disease during the 1980s.
