Bernie Sanders has criticized Hillary Clinton’s brief praise for Nancy Reagan, whom the Democratic presidential frontrunner said “started a national conversation” on HIV/Aids.
“I just don’t know what she was talking about,” Sanders, the independent Vermont senator who is running for the Democratic nomination, said in an interview with CNN on Sunday.
Nancy Reagan died last Sunday at the age of 94. Amid tributes for her work to combat illegal drug use and promote stem cell research to aid the fight against Alzheimer’s disease, from which her husband Ronald Reagan suffered, criticism has mounted about the couple’s silence on Aids and HIV during their time in the White House.
On Friday, in an interview with MSNBC at Reagan’s funeral in Simi Valley, California, Clinton said: “Because of both president and Mrs Reagan, in particular Mrs Reagan, we started a national conversation when before nobody would talk about it.”
She also praised what she called Reagan’s “very effective, low-key advocacy”.
Clinton subsequently apologized for her comment, saying: “I misspoke about their record on HIV and Aids. For that, I’m sorry.”
On Sunday, Sanders said: “In fact, that was a very tragic moment in modern American history. There were many many people who were dying of Aids, and in fact there was demand all over the country for President Reagan to start talking about this tragedy, and yet he refused to talk about it.
“I’m glad [Clinton] apologized, but the truth is it was not President Reagan and Nancy Reagan who were leaders … quite the contrary … they didn’t get involved in it.”
Barack Obama paid tribute to Nancy Reagan in his weekly address on Saturday. Discussing Reagan’s role as first lady and her work on Alzheimer’s research and breast cancer awareness, he did not mention the controversy over her lack of action on Aids.
