Hillary Clinton once drank warm horse milk in Mongolia — and it tasted “sort of like yogurt that you would leave out for a week.”
And only afterward, the doctor traveling with her said he’d need to monitor her to make sure she didn’t contract “brucellosis” — a cattle disease.
Clinton told the story during an interview with Des Moines-area WHO-TV political reporter Dave Price, who had asked about the surprises she’d encountered during her travels abroad.
She’d visited Mongolia as first lady in 1995, visiting nomads there as she supported the country wedged between China and Russia for its decision to scrap communism and embrace democracy.
In an effort to show hospitality, a nomadic family had offered Clinton fermented mare’s milk.
“This was horse milk, and it was offered with great hospitality and graciousness. And the whole family was looking at me,” she said, laughing. “And so, you know, I lifted it up and I took a little bit of it and it was quite challenging.”
Clinton added: “It was sort of like yogurt that you would leave out for a week, the way it tasted.”
As she was headed back to her plane, her doctor raised a red flag.
“He said, ‘Well, we’re going to have to watch you carefully now because there’s brucellosis, which is a cattle disease, in Mongolia,” Clinton said. “I said, ‘Well why are you telling me this now?'”
She didn’t wind up with brucellosis.
