Hillary Clinton has apologized after she credited former First Lady Nancy Reagan and President Ronald Reagan with starting a "national conversation" about HIV and AIDS during an interview with MSNBC.
In the interview, which took place during Nancy Reagan's televised funeral, Clinton praised her "low-key advocacy" during the 1980s and said it prompted discussion about AIDS when "nobody would talk about it."
Hillary Clinton: The Reagans, particularly Nancy, helped start "a national conversation" about HIV and AIDS. https://t.co/7sZp8X53fb
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 11, 2016
The problem? The Reagan administration was notoriously reluctant to address the disease during the early days of the epidemic, and one of the chief criticisms of Nancy Reagan's tenure as First Lady is that she and her husband turned their backs on those who were suffering from the virus.
Audio recordings of Reagan officials making jokes about the crisis still live on. In 1982, Press Secretary Larry Speakes was taped laughing about the disease with a room full of reporters, calling the virus the "gay plague." Then, In 1983, Reagan's communications director Pat Buchanan was quoted as calling AIDS "nature's revenge on gay men." Just one year later, the CDC reported that the AIDS had claimed more than 4,000 lives.
The Guardian reports that President Ronald Reagan was about five years into his presidency before the uttered the word "AIDS" in public, despite the disease's devastating impact. By the time he spoke at length about the epidemic, in 1987, tens of thousands had died.
“I haven’t heard anyone say the Reagans were homophobic," Paul Volberding, an oncologist from the University of San Francisco who began treating AIDS patients in the early 1980s, told the Guardian. "But it was a political calculation. This wouldn’t sell to Republican voters.”
LGBT groups and allies were quick to condemn Clinton's comments as a mischaracterization of the former first couple's treatment of the epidemic.
The president of the Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy group that has endorsed Clinton's run for president, addressed the candidate's ill-advised statement.
While I respect her advocacy on issues like stem cell & Parkinson's research, Nancy Reagan was, sadly, no hero in the fight against HIV/AIDS— Chad Griffin (@ChadHGriffin) March 11, 2016
Many others expressed outrage at Clinton's remarks via Twitter.
.@HillaryClinton I'm a supporter but praising the Reagans for their response to the AIDS crisis is INSULTING to my friends who DIED of HIV.— Joe Rodriguez (@JoeandBullish) March 11, 2016
Gays to @HillaryClinton right now. #NancyReagan #AIDS pic.twitter.com/OVI0IgMapW— Des Kennedy (@ThatDesKennedy) March 11, 2016
Nancy Reagan started the convo on AIDS? WTF? Hillary Clinton tried to pivot towards the General but ended up in Bizzarro World...— Mike Luoma (@MikeLuoma) March 11, 2016
Clinton has since apologized for her statements.
Hillary Clinton’s statement on her comments about the Reagans' record on HIV and AIDS: pic.twitter.com/RtIs0zpJfk— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 11, 2016