She says the campaign 'sexism' was something that she and the president needed to get past. Clinton: 'Sexism' in '08 Obama camp

Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday there was “sexism” in Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign that she and the president needed to get past.

“Beginning the process of working with then-Sen. Obama after I ended my campaign, we had an awkward but necessary meeting to clear the air on a couple of issues, and one of them was the sexism that — unfortunately — was present in that ’08 campaign,” Clinton told Robin Roberts on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”


In her new memoir, “Hard Choices,” Clinton wrote that she rejected a request from the Obama campaign to attack Sarah Palin, who was then running for vice president.

( WATCH: Clinton's 'Hard Choices' book tour)

“That very first day, the Obama campaign said, ‘Well, we want you to go out there and criticize her,’ and I said ‘For what? For being a woman? No, let’s wait until we know where she stands, I don’t know anything about her. Do you know anything about her?’” Clinton said she told the Obama campaign.

In response to Clinton’s revelation, Palin tweeted: “Look who fired the 1st shot on the real ‘war on women.’ Hint: it wasn’t the GOP. See this excerpt from Hillary’s book,” accompanied by a picture of “Hard Choices.”

A senior Obama campaign official said that the request for Clinton to speak was tailored specifically to Palin’s speech after McCain picked her as his running mate, in which she made a direct pitch for Clinton supporters.

( PHOTOS: Hillary Clinton starts book tour)

“Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America. But it turns out the women of America aren’t finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all,” Palin said at the time.

“We wanted Hillary to go out and say the Republican platform is completely inconsistent with the principles on which I ran,” said the official, adding that it was not supposed to be a broad-based knock on Palin.

( Also on POLITICO: 10 key passages in Clinton's book)

At a White House press briefing Tuesday when asked about Clinton’s comments, Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest admitted he had not seen the interview but commented that “it was a historic campaign and one that the president is proud to be involved in. The reason why it was so historic is because you had a woman like Sec. Clinton who was running such a powerful, strong, sophisticated campaign.”

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