Albright: ‘Special place in hell’ comment came at ‘wrong time’

Former secretary of State Madeline Albright is softening her controversial comment that there’s a “special place in hell for women who don’t help each other” in a New York Times opinion piece released Friday afternoon.

Albright has received significant criticism for making the remark while campaigning for Hillary Clinton. In the op-ed, Albright said she now understands that she “came across as condemning those who disagree with my political preferences.”

{mosads}“I have spent much of my career as a diplomat. It is an occupation in which words and context matter a great deal. So one might assume I know better than to tell a large number of women to go to hell,” she writes.

“I absolutely believe what I said, that women should help one another, but this was the wrong context and the wrong time to use that line. I did not mean to argue that women should support a particular candidate based solely on gender.”

She added that she’s made the comment a number of times in the past because she believes that “in a society where women often feel pressured to tear one another down, our saving grace lies in our willingness to lift one another up.”

Albright’s comments came days before the feminist icon Gloria Steinem said during an interview that young women may be supporting Sanders in order to meet “boys.” Those comments sparked a strong backlash, and Steinem aplogized.

Sanders won young women by huge margins in the New Hampshire primary.

Clinton was asked about Albright’s comment during Thursday night’s Democratic debate, where she emphasized that it was a common line Albright uses and pivoting towards her call to empower women.