Clinton defends RFK reference

NEW YORK, May 25 (UPI) -- Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton tried Sunday to explain her controversial remark about Robert F. Kennedy's assassination in 1968.

In an op-ed published in the New York Daily News, the New York senator said her comment Friday to the editorial board of the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D., were taken out of context.

"This past Friday, during a meeting with a newspaper editorial board, I was asked about whether I was going to continue in the presidential race," she wrote. "I made clear that I was -- and that I thought the urgency to end the 2008 primary process was unprecedented. I pointed out, as I have before, that both my husband's primary campaign, and Sen. Robert Kennedy's, had continued into June."

Politicians and pundits reacted with harsh criticism of Clinton's reference to Kennedy's assassination, many seeing in it a suggestion that her rival, Barack Obama, is at risk of assassination.

The comments were misconstrued into something "completely unthinkable," Clinton said Sunday.

"I want to set the record straight: I was making the simple point that given our history, the length of this year's primary contest is nothing unusual," Clinton said, adding that she was "deeply dismayed and disturbed" that her comment would be taken out of context.

Obama has said he accepts Clinton's explanation.