HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) - Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton tried to backpedal Friday from comments she made in October suggesting Mississippi was a backward place for women's progress. The former first lady said the comments "were not exactly what I said," even though they came directly from an interview she gave to the Des Moines Register in October.
The newspaper quoted the New York senator discussing Iowa and Mississippi being the only states that have never elected a woman governor or sent a woman to Congress.
"How can Iowa be ranked with Mississippi? That's not what I see. That's not the quality. That's not the communitarianism; that's not the openness I see in Iowa," Hillary Clinton told the newspaper then—a remark that prompted immediate criticism from Mississippi Republicans.
Friday, Clinton tried to downplay the remarks.