Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton refused to say she disagreed with former Secretary of State Madeline Albright’s declaration that women who don’t support other women have a “special place in hell” during Thursday’s “PBS NewsHour” Democratic presidential debate.
Hillary said, in response to a question on why she wasn’t getting higher support from women voters, “Well, first, Judy, I have spent my entire adult life working toward making sure that women are empowered to make their own choices, even if that choice is not to vote for me. … I have no argument with anyone making up her mind about who to support. I just hope that, by the end of this campaign, there will be a lot more supporting me. That’s what I’m working toward.”
She was then asked, “As you know, just quickly, your strong supporter, former secretary of state Madeleine Albright said the other day that ‘there’s a special place in hell’ for women who don’t support other women. Do you agree with what she said?”
Hillary responded, “Well, look, I think that she’s been saying that for as long as I’ve known her, which is about 25 years. But it doesn’t change my view that we need to empower everyone, women and men, to make the best decisions in their minds that they can make. That’s what I’ve always stood for, and when it comes to the issues that are really on the front lines, as to whether we’re going to have equal pay, paid family leave, some opportunity for, you know, women to go as far as their hard work and talent take them, I think that we still have some barriers to knock down, which is why that’s at the core of my campaign. I would notice, just for historic aside, somebody told me earlier today, we’ve had like 200 presidential primary debates, and this is the first time there have been a majority of women on the stage. So, we’ll take our progress wherever we can find it.”
Hillary later added that she’s not asking people to vote for her based on her gender.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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