OAN Staff Blake Wolf
5:54 PM – Thursday, September 26, 2024
Hillary Clinton continued to demonize supporters of former President Donald Trump this week, arguing that the term “deplorables” is actually “too kind” of a characterization for the Republican voter base.
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Clinton released an op-ed in The Washing Post on Wednesday. She described how difficult it was for her to empathize with “radicalized individuals,” reflecting back on her “basket of deplorables” phrase from 2016, when she lost to Trump in the U.S. election.
However, political strategists highlighted how Clinton’s use of that phrase greatly damaged her political campaign, as she continued to openly insult a demographic comprised of working class, blue collar voters, the same group that many Democrat politicians claim to want to benefit in their campaign messaging.
“In 2016, I famously described half of Trump’s supporters as ‘the basket of deplorables’. I was talking about the people who are drawn to his racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia – you name it. The people for whom his bigotry is a feature, not a bug. It was an unfortunate choice of words and bad politics, but it also got at an important truth. Just look at everything that has happened in the years since, from Charlottesville to Jan. 6,” Clinton wrote in the piece.
She continued on, stating, “The masks have come off, and if anything, ‘deplorable’ is too kind a word for the hate and violent extremism we’ve seen from some Trump supporters.”
In contrast, Clinton attempted to compare and integrate the “expertise” of Shannon Foley, a former white supremacist, who has changed her life and now “works to deprogram and rehabilitate people leaving hate groups,” to reigning in Trump supporters. Clinton added that she “marveled at the empathy Shannon managed to summon for even the most (yes, let’s say it) deplorable bigots.”
However, The Denver Post outlet previously noted that “when Clinton aides speak in private, their basket of ‘deplorables’ includes faithful Catholics and evangelicals who believe in the sanctity of human life.”
Clinton continued in the op-ed: “I wondered whether Shannon’s thoughtful, empathetic approach could offer lessons not just for rescuing radicalized individuals but also for healing our wounded country. What will it take to pull us out of the madness? Is there any way to drain the fever swamps so we can stand together on firmer, higher ground.”
Although she believes that her “deplorable” characterization holds true, Clinton claimed that she would strives to look at the Republican base with more empathy.
“Talking about the ‘deplorables’ in 2016, I said, ‘Some of those folks, they are irredeemable.’ Part of me would still say this is objectively true. Just look at the lack of remorse from many of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists who’ve been convicted of sedition and other crimes. But another part of me wants to believe something else. I’d like to believe there’s goodness in everyone and a chance at redemption, no matter how remote,” she concluded, presenting herself as taking the moral high ground.
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