VIDEO: Frank Rich Responds To Hillary Clinton's Praise of Reagans Re: HIV/AIDS; Clinton Later Retracts

UPDATE: Hillary Clinton's Twitter page has posted a statement retracting her comments about President and Nancy Reagan's efforts to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS. That statement has been added to the bottom of this article.

Former New York Times Theatre Critic Frank Rich had a harsh review for comments made by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton this afternoon, after the former New York Senator and U.S. Secretary of State praised President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan regarding their work to increase awareness of the AIDS crisis.

In the video clip below, filmed at today's funeral for Nancy Reagan, Clinton says, "Because of President and Mrs. Reagan, in particular Mrs. Reagan, we started a national conversation when before, nobody wanted to talk about it, nobody wanted to do anything about it."

Rich responds, "Hillary Clinton's revisionist version of the Reagan record on AIDS is an insult to those who fought the Reagan administration to take action on AIDS and those who died while waiting in vain for it to do so."

The popular essayist and op-ed columnist also posted on Facebook a link to his 2003 essay on the occasion of HBO's broadcast of Mike Nichols' adaptation of Tony Kushner's ANGELS IN AMERICA, which is is critical of Reagan's lack of action when the epidemic grew during his presidency.

The statement below was posted on Hillary Clinton's Twitter page after this article was originally posted.