Many activists remain bitter at Ronald Reagan and his administration for what they view as a devastatingly slow response to AIDS. Though initial reports of the disease surfaced in 1981, President Reagan did not make his first public speech about it until 1987, by which time it had killed more than 20,000 Americans.



In her MSNBC interview, Clinton was complimentary to both Reagans with regard to their stance on AIDS.



"It may be hard for your viewers to remember how difficult it was for people to talk about HIV/AIDS back in the 1980s. And because of both President and Mrs. Reagan, in particular Mrs. Reagan, we started a national conversation, when before nobody would talk about it," she said."Nobody wanted to do anything about it.