Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton can be her own worst enemy, but her skillful recovery from a self-inflicted wound was on vivid display last week, when she said that the late Nancy Reagan helped start a "national conversation" on AIDS. That, of course, is ludicrous, as both President Ronald Reagan and his wife wanted nothing to do with talking about the disease, which in the 1980s and early 1990s was killing scores of gay men, including their actor pal Rock Hudson.
"It may be hard for your viewers to remember how difficult it was for people to talk about HIV/AIDS back in the 1980s," Clinton, who was attending Nancy Reagan's funeral in Simi Valley, California, told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell. "And 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 anything to do with it."
Clinton was blasted by a firestorm of criticism online, even from supporters such as Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin, who tweeted, "Nancy Reagan was, sadly, no hero in the fight against HIV/AIDS."
To her credit, Clinton quickly realized her error and swiftly issued an apology, saying that she had "misspoke."
"While the Reagans were strong advocates for stem cell research and finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease, I misspoke about their record on HIV and AIDS," she said in a statement about two hours after her interview. "For that, I'm sorry."
In contrast, gay state Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) last month spoke out against President Reagan's record on AIDS during the Legislature's annual Ronald Reagan Day ceremony, which praises the late president for "advancing the public good."
Leno said that he had remained silent in recent years, but this time he had to speak out and could not support the resolution.
"Though the AIDS crisis began in 1981, President Ronald Reagan refused to even publicly recognize the fact of the epidemic until September 17, 1985, vowing at that time that he would make AIDS research a top priority," Leno said, according to a transcript. "When he introduced his 1986 federal budget, President Reagan actually cut AIDS funding by 11 percent. ... This is not my definition of advancing the public good."
In correcting her own error, Clinton went further than merely sending out a statement, and that's what's important. In a March 12 post on Medium, Clinton reiterated her mistake but also moved the conversation forward by outlining what her administration would do regarding HIV/AIDS. "The AIDS crisis," she wrote, "looks very different today."
And indeed it does. No longer an automatic death sentence, many people living with HIV/AIDS lead productive lives, working and engaging in recreational activities like anyone else. The medical advances over the last three decades have resulted in breakthrough treatments. Activists on the front lines at the beginning of the crisis forced federal officials to speed up clinical trials and approve new drugs.
"There are more options for treatment and prevention than ever before," Clinton wrote. "More people with HIV are leading full and happy lives. But HIV and AIDS are still with us. They continue to disproportionately impact communities of color, transgender people, young people and gay and bisexual men. There are still 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States today, with about 50,000 people newly diagnosed each year. In Sub-Saharan Africa, almost 60 percent of people with HIV are women and girls. Even though the tools exist to end this epidemic once and for all, there are still far too many people dying today."
She proposed increasing HIV/AIDS research and investing in promising innovations that research is producing. She mentioned PrEP, the new once-a-day drug (Truvada) that has shown to be highly effective in both studies and real-world settings. "We should expand access to that drug for everyone, including at-risk populations," Clinton wrote.
"We should call on Republican governors to put people's health and well-being ahead of politics and extend Medicaid, which would provide health care to those with HIV and AIDS," she added.
Clinton also discussed the need to change HIV criminalization laws, which was not heard previously on the campaign trail.
"We should call on states to reform outdated and stigmatizing HIV criminalization laws," Clinton wrote. "We should increase global funding for HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment. And we should cap out-of-pocket expenses and drug costs �" and hold companies like Turing and Valeant accountable when they attempt to gouge patients by jacking up the price of lifesaving medications."
Turing was the pharmaceutical company that increased the price of Daraprim, a drug used by some AIDS patients, 5,000 percent �" from $13.50 to $750 �" before embattled former CEO Martin Shkreli was arrested on securities fraud charges last year.
Clinton ended her essay acknowledging long-term survivors and the need to keep working toward the day when HIV transmission is drastically reduced.
"We're still surrounded by memories of loved ones lost and lives cut short," Clinton wrote. "But we're also surrounded by survivors who are fighting harder than ever.
"We owe it to them and to future generations to continue that fight together. For the first time, an AIDS-free generation is in sight," she added. "As president, I promise you that I will not let up until we reach that goal. We will not leave anyone behind."
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Clinton's opponent in the Democratic race, also released an AIDS plan following her gaffe. He said that one of the biggest problems is the high cost of drugs, which is true. He announced that if elected, he would establish a multibillion-dollar prize fund to incentivize drug development. "This prize fund would replace our country's broken system that drives drug prices up through government-sanctioned monopolies," Sanders' website states.
In keeping with Sanders' platform, he also favors a Medicare-for-all single payer health plan, which he argues, would help people living with HIV/AIDS and millions of other Americans who do not have health insurance.
Clinton quickly responded to her mistake, owned it, and has pushed the conversation forward. The result is that both Democratic candidates are now talking about HIV/AIDS in a way that they weren't before, and she and Sanders are the only presidential candidates even discussing the issue. Clinton started off with her foot in her mouth, but she quickly corrected the situation. Even longtime AIDS activist Larry Kramer was impressed, writing on Facebook that he was glad Clinton penned the Medium essay.
"Boy, did she work fast to react to the pressure that so many of us immediately commenced," Kramer wrote. "Onward."
That's leadership, and we'd rather have Clinton's attention to policy than the Republicans' obsession with scapegoating immigrants and race-baiting.