Hillary Clinton says she shouldn’t have called “half” of Trump supporters “deplorables,” by which she meant they are bigots of one stripe or other. She said, “I was ‘grossly generalistic. I was wrong to say ‘half,’” just before vowing to point out “bigotry” within Donald Trump’s campaign.
Clinton sparked a tumult when she insulted Trump supporters at a recent fund-raiser. “To be grossly generalistic,” she said,” you can put half of them into a basket of deplorables. Racist, sexist, homophobic…”
She then went on to say: “Unfortunately, he has lifted them up. He has given them a voice. He tweets offensive, mean-spirited rhetoric.”
She said Trump supporters are “irredeemable” and “do not represent America.” She said Trump’s supporters are searching for any kind of change because of fear.
Then, the Democratic candidate nominee made analogous comments in an interview with an Israeli television station. But when she learned that her comments had been widely reported the following night, she quickly issued a less than earnest retraction.
Trump and others made comparisons to Barack Obama’s derogatory comments about patriotic Americans clinging to “guns and religion” in 2008 and Mitt Romney’s infamous “47%” remark in 2012.
“It’s disgraceful that Clinton makes her worst mistake of the campaign, and rather than apologizing for her disgusting attack on Americans, tries to cover it up with a pathetic rehash of previous insults that haven’t done her a bit of good?” Trump said in response.
“Now, her true feelings about the American people have come out, displaying her bigotry and disdain for millions of good people,” continued Trump.
Mike Pence, Trump’s running mate, censured Clinton’s statements at a Values Voter Summit in DC. “The truth is, Trump supporters are hard-working farmers, teachers, coal miners, veterans, and law enforcement professionals who know America can be made great again,” Pence said.
“Let me just say,” He continued, “These are decent, law abiding, and concerned citizens- not, as Hillary says, a basket of anything. They are patriotic Americans who deserve the respect of the people who aspire to lead them.”
This wouldn’t be the first time Clinton has divided Trump supporters into “two unsavory baskets,” what she calls “the deplorables,” in an interview with News Israel.
“If I may be totally generalistic, I would say you can put Trump’s supporters into two baskets; the deplorables- racists, and the people who are attracted to Trump’s ideas because they believe that somehow he is going to restore America to a bygone state that doesn’t exist anymore. You can just eliminate them from the equation because every party and movement have always had an irritating and prejudicial subsection of undesirables within it.”
Clinton’s remarks have given her critics, Trump supporters, and Republicans an ample supply of ammunition to use against her, and her half-hearted retraction has done little to undo the damage to her campaign.
Similar to Romney’s infamous 47% remark- Clinton’s open disdain for half of the voting public has given Americans serious misgivings over Clinton’s ability to serve as a competent arbiter of public policy.
Considering the fact that the Obama administration has used executive privilege as a weapon against his opponents- including putting together a blacklist of conservatives and people critical of him for the IRS, which was used to retaliate against them- many have raised concerns about Clinton continuing and extending these sorts of practices.
But Clinton, despite her transparent attempt at an apology doubled down on the name calling when she said, “I will not stop calling out intolerance and racism in his campaign.”
She also attempted to remind us about her comments empathizing with some Trump supporters. “As I have said, many of Mr. Trump’s supporters are honest, hard-working American citizens who feel that the economy and our political system are not on their side.”
Well, she’s right. Trump’s supporters are supremely interested in overturning policies of all kinds established during the last eight years that seem to hold families, working people, veterans, and Christians in contempt- that appear to be part of a plan to disempower the middle class if not wipe the middle class out entirely.
Clinton continues, “I’m resolute in my plan to bring the country back together and make this economy work for every American citizen, not just the people at the top. Because we are ‘stronger together.'”
But this wouldn’t be the first time Clinton has effectively threatened to throw a whole class of citizens overboard and then limply apologize. Just ask coal miner, Bo Copley.
Regards,
Ethan Warrick
Editor
Wealth Authority
