Bernie Sanders Condemns Hillary Clinton For Inflating Nancy Reagan's Role In AIDS Crisis

[Miles Archer]

Bernie Sanders Condemns Hillary Clinton For Inflating Nancy Reagan's Role In AIDS Crisis

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-nancy-reagan-aids_us_56e5a53be4b0860f99d956ce

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday sharply criticized Democratic presidential opponent Hillary Clinton’s claim that former first lady Nancy Reagan “started a national conversation” on HIV/AIDS in the 1980s.

“I just don’t know what she was talking about,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “In fact, that was a very tragic moment in modern American history. There were many, many people dying of AIDS, and in fact, there was demand all over this country for President Reagan to start talking about this terrible tragedy. And yet he refused to talk about it while the AIDS epidemic was sweeping this country. So, I'm not quite sure where Secretary Clinton got her information.”

On Friday, at Nancy Reagan’s funeral, Clinton praised her for her “very effective, low key advocacy” about the HIV/AIDS epidemic when "nobody would talk about it.”

***

“I'm glad she apologized,” Sanders said on Sunday. “But the truth is, it was not President Reagan and Nancy Reagan who were leaders in talking about this issue, quite the contrary. They refused to allow that discussion to take place. They didn't get involved in it while so many fellow Americans were getting sick and dying.”

[riversedge]

1. I think Sanders should have shown some class and accept the apology.

[shawn703]

2. I guess you didn't read the post.

“I'm glad she apologized,” Sanders said on Sunday. “But the truth is, it was not President Reagan and Nancy Reagan who were leaders in talking about this issue, quite the contrary. They refused to allow that discussion to take place. They didn't get involved in it while so many fellow Americans were getting sick and dying.”

[Miles Archer]

4. Shawn beat me to my first response, but...

...elections aside, the Reagans should not, under any circumstances, be given an ounce of "credit" for any efforts in the fight against AIDS/HIV, especially for "starting a conversation" that they actually squelched.

It wasn't a rejection of her apology, and it certainly was not a lack of class.

Clinton is running for President. She's a public figure. When you make a statement like the one she made, it is a normal response to ask "I wonder where she got her information?"

George W. Bush ignored some information..."bin Laden Determined To Strike In The U.S."

He also brought us into the war in Iraq, justified by "information" on WMDs.

We have a right to know where our politicians are getting their "information" from. As many have said, Hillary knew what was going on during Reagan's Presidency. How this image of Nancy Reagan as a gentle and caring Florence Nightingale crept into her awareness is up for grabs, but whether you or anyone else likes it, yes...it does concern me.

[shawn703]

3. Camp Weathervane wants us to stop talking about this

Unfortuantely it's part of a pattern of distortions and dishonesty from Clinton - traits which should be purged from the Democratic Party.

[Miles Archer]

5. This happens again, and again, and again.

Option 1: Full and complete apology and it goes away.

Option 2: "I misspoke" and it comes back to bite the speaker on the ass

Option 3: A full apology after "I misspoke," but by this point, everyone is talking about it.

If Hillary learned one lesson from this, I hope it is the fact that she will be fact-checked and held accountable for every word that comes out of her mouth between now and November. If Bernie gets the nomination, he'll be under the same scrutiny. The days of George W. Bush "catapultin' the propaganda" are over...that's why Jeb! got sent home to mommy.

[Bluenorthwest]

6. Thanks to Bernie for stating the reality of the Reagan dereliction of duty around AIDS.

"I just don’t know what she was talking about” he says and that's also something that needs to be said, I still can't even comprehend that anyone in this Party could think or say such a thing, much less a person who has heard endless personal testimony to the contrary at our own Democratic events including the Convention that nominated Bill. It's unfathomable.

[winter is coming]

7. What a diplomatic way of saying HRC's claim was full of shit. n/t