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Gloria Steinem Explains Her 'Bernie Boys' Comment

On the February 5, 2016 episode of HBO's "Real Time With Bill Baher," famed feminist activist Gloria Steinem suggested that young female supporters of Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders might be supporting the candidate because "the boys are with Bernie." [See the video of the interview above.]

The comment drew widespread anger — and a question from Sarah in Charleston, S.C. during our May 24 interview with Steinem.

"I found that really disappointing — I'm a feminist and a Sanders supporter," Sarah said.

"Well that was the beginning of a sentence that never got to its end," Steinem told Sarah.

"Previous to that part, I had been talking about how angry young women were at graduating in debt and also realizing that they would be earning a million dollars less over their lifetime in order to pay the debt back. The end of the sentence about the boys and Bernie was about Bernie and his attention to free universal education — but Bill interrupted me in the middle. I'm sorry to say that I was so intent on where I was going that I didn't understand — I should have thrown myself in front of the camera.

"It had nothing to do with sex, it had to do with where the power is. I was not thinking about sex and dates at all.

"I was so little on the track of sex and dates, that I didn't understand when he interrupted me. It's very hard to understand that people think what you don't think...I'm sorry about that."

You can hear the whole interview with Steinem, and learn more about her new VICELAND docuseries, "Woman," here.

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