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Watch: Hey Hillary, here’s how the Reagan administration mocked HIV/AIDS victims

The Presidential candidate seemed to suggest that Nancy Reagan started the conversation about HIV/AIDS.

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At Nancy Reagan's funeral, Hillary Clinton caused a major outrage when she suggested the Reagans started the conversation about HIV/AIDS. She said: “It may be hard for your viewers to remember how difficult it was for people to talk about HIV/AIDS back in the 1980s. Because of both President and Mrs. Reagan, in particular Mrs. Reagan, we started a national conversation when before nobody would talk about it, nobody wanted to do anything about it. That, too, is something I really appreciated with her very effective low-key advocacy, but it penetrated the public conscience and people began to say, ‘Hey, we have to do something about this too.”

Realising her mistake, she apologised two hours later, saying “While the Reagans were strong advocates for stem cell research and finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, I misspoke about their record on H.I.V. and AIDS.  For that, I’m sorry.”

In case Hillary wants to see how the Reagan administration treated HIV/AIDS, this video by Vanity Fair detailing an interaction between Larry Speakes (White House press officer) and the press will be a nice primer:

 

 Here's the complete in text: 

Q: Larry, does the President have any reaction to the announcement—the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, that A-I-D-S is now an epidemic and have over 600 cases?

SPEAKES: What’s A-I-D-S?

Q: Over a third of them have died. It’s known as “gay plague.” (Laughter.) No, it is. I mean it’s a pretty serious thing that one in every three people that get this have died. And I wondered if the President is aware of it?

SPEAKES: I don’t have it. Do you? (Laughter.)

Q: No, I don’t.

SPEAKES: You didn’t answer my question.

Q: Well, I just wondered, does the President—

SPEAKES: How do you know? (Laughter.)

Q: In other words, the White House looks on this as a great joke?

SPEAKES: No, I don't know anything about it, Lester.

Q: Does the President, does anybody in the White House know about this epidemic, Larry?

SPEAKES: I don't think so. I don't think there’s been any—

Q: Nobody knows?

SPEAKES: There has been no personal experience here, Lester.

Q: No, I mean, I thought you were keeping—

SPEAKES: I checked thoroughly with Dr. Ruge this morning and he’s had no—(laughter)—no patients suffering from A-I-D-S or whatever it is.

Q: The President doesn’t have gay plague, is that what you're saying or what?

SPEAKES: No, I didn’t say that.

Q: Didn’t say that?

SPEAKES: I thought I heard you on the State Department over there. Why didn’t you stay there? (Laughter.)

Q: Because I love you, Larry, that’s why. (Laughter.)

SPEAKES: Oh, I see. Just don’t put it in those terms, Lester. (Laughter.)

Q: Oh, I retract that.

SPEAKES: I hope so.

 

 

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