After calling President Barack Obama on Tuesday to clarify controversial remarks she made about his foreign policy, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looks to mend fences further when the two meet Wednesday at a party on Martha's Vineyard.
A Clinton spokesman said she plans on "hugging it out" with Obama when she sees him, and played down the significance of comments made in an interview with The Atlantic magazine in which she suggested she disagreed with the president's international strategy.
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"Earlier today, the secretary called President Obama to make sure he knows that nothing she said was an attempt to attack him, his policies, or his leadership," the spokesman, Nick Merrill, said in a written statement, according to
The Associated Press.
"Some are now choosing to hype [the] differences but they do not eclipse their broad agreement on most issues. Like any two friends who have to deal with the public eye, she looks forward to hugging it out when they see each other tomorrow night."
In the interview, Clinton critiqued the current administration's foreign policy, saying, "Great nations need organizing principles, and 'don't do stupid stuff' is not an organizing principle."
Clinton also argued that Obama's refusal to "build up a credible fighting force" created the conditions for jihadists to seize large portions of Iraq.
Democratic strategist and longtime Obama adviser David Axelrod publicly slammed Clinton's comments, saying in a tweet, "Just to clarify: 'Don't do stupid stuff' means stuff like occupying Iraq in the first place, which was a tragically bad decision,"
Politico reported.
Politico said that Axelrod's public swipe at Clinton reveals the anger within the Obama camp about her comments.
"The Axelrod tweet took what had been a simmering rift and blew it open. Between that and Clinton's comments, the sense of unity that her team has tried to establish with the White House has broken down," Politico's Maggie Haberman wrote.
Clinton will be on Martha's Vineyard to sign copies of her book
"Hard Choices." Obama is vacationing there.
Clinton has not said whether she will run for president, but she is regarded as the favorite to win the Democratic nomination. Therefore each of her public statements has been scrutinized as a possible reflection of her potential campaign platform.
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Reuters contributed to this story.
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