Speaking to radio station WJZD-FM in Gulfport, Miss., the former first lady said the comments she made about the state in the run up to the Iowa caucuses "were not exactly what I said," even though they came directly from an interview she gave to the Des Moines Register in October.
Clinton was on a campaign swing through Mississippi before Tuesday's Democratic presidential primary.
The newspaper quoted the New York senator discussing Iowa and Mississippi being the only states that have never elected a woman governor or sent a woman to Congress.
"How can Iowa be ranked with Mississippi? That's not what I see. That's not the quality. That's not the communitarianism; that's not the openness I see in Iowa," Hillary Clinton told the newspaper then
- a remark that prompted immediate criticism from Mississippi Republicans.
Rival Barack Obama has been running radio ads in Mississippi calling Clinton's comments insulting to the state.
Friday, Clinton tried to downplay the remarks.
"What I said is what I learned is that neither Iowa or Mississippi had ever elected a woman statewide and I referenced the fact that I was the first woman elected statewide in New York and I told the Iowans that they had a chance to try to change that and now in Mississippi giving Mississippi voters a chance to change that," Clinton said in the radio interview.
