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