Madeleine Albright says controversial remark at Clinton rally was wrong context at wrong time

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has delicately tackled – but not apologized for – her remarks at a Hillary Clinton event suggesting there was a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.

In an op-ed Friday in The New York Times, Albright said it was the “wrong context” and “wrong time” for the line, noting, “I have spent much of my career as a diplomat. It is an occupation in which words and context matter a great deal. So one might assume I know better than to tell a large number of women to go to hell.”

Albright, who was Secretary of State from 1997-2001 under President Bill Clinton, added, “but last Saturday, in the excitement of a campaign event for Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, that is essentially what I did, when I delivered a line I have uttered a thousand times to applause, nodding heads and laughter: ‘There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.’”

She then wrote that she was surprised when the remark went viral.

In the Times article titled “My Undiplomatic Moment,” Albright added that she absolutely believed “what I said, that women should help one another, but this was the wrong context and the wrong time to use that line.

“ I did not mean to argue that women should support a particular candidate based solely on gender. But I understand that I came across as condemning those who disagree with my political preferences. If heaven were open only to those who agreed on politics, I imagine it would be largely unoccupied.”