Clinton further apologizes for Nancy Reagan AIDS comment

Hillary Clinton penned an article in Medium Saturday, expanding on her previous apology for praising Nancy and Ronald Reagans’ response to HIV and AIDS. 

{mosads}“Yesterday, at Nancy Regan’s funeral, I said something inaccurate when speaking about the Reagans’ record on HIV and AIDS,” she wrote. “I made a mistake, plain and simple.”

On MSNBC Friday, Clinton applauded Reagan for her contributions to the fight against AIDS.

“It may be hard for your viewers to remember how difficult it was to talk about HIV [and] AIDS back in the 1980s,” Clinton said. “Because of both President and Mrs. Reagan, in particular Mrs. Reagan, we started a national conversation where before nobody would talk about it.”

Clinton immediately received pushback on the comment; the Reagans have been harshly criticized for initially ignoring the AIDS epidemic. 

“To be clear, the Reagans did not start a national conversation about HIV and AIDS,” Clinton wrote. “That distinction belongs to generations of brave lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, along with straight allies, who started not just a conversation but a movement that continues to this day.”

Clinton went on to call for a continuation of research and legislation to help people with HIV and AIDS.

“We should call on Republican governors to put people’s health and well-being ahead of politics and extend Medicaid, which would provide health care to those with HIV and AIDS,” she wrote. “We should call on states to reform outdated and stigmatizing HIV criminalization laws.”