Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright speaks with Sen. Cory Booker at an event for Hillary Clinton. | Getty Albright offers mea culpa for 'undiplomatic moment'

Madeleine Albright does not think there is a special place in hell for women who support Bernie Sanders, after all.

The former secretary of state and staunch supporter of Hillary Clinton invoked her tried-and-true maxim last week in New Hampshire, remarking that "there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other." On Friday, she penned an op-ed in The New York Times in which she sought to explain herself.


"I absolutely believe what I said, that women should help one another, but this was the wrong context and the wrong time to use that line," Albright wrote. "I did not mean to argue that women should support a particular candidate based solely on gender."

The line came up during Thursday night's debate, with Clinton defending her longtime friend. “Well, look I think that she’s been saying that for as long as I’ve known her," she remarked.

"But I understand that I came across as condemning those who disagree with my political preferences," Albright added in her op-ed on Friday. "If heaven were open only to those who agreed on politics, I imagine it would be largely unoccupied."

While acknowledging generational gaps and differences, Albright cautioned that "if we do not pay careful attention to this history, the gains we have fought so hard for could be lost, and we could move backward."

"The battle for gender equality is still being waged, and it will be easier if we have a woman who prioritizes these issues in the Oval Office and if the gender balance among elected officials reflects that of our country," she said, concluding with the hope that her granddaughters' generation would continue to build on the progress of her own.