The “Basket of Deplorables” Hillary Clinton labels half of Trump’s supporters as “racists.” Did Clinton go too far? pic.twitter.com/wfiwNnYMAx
— Fox&Friends Weekend (@ffweekend) September 10, 2016
Supporters for each presidential candidate tend to remain loyal in most cases, but some supporters during this election cycle have been taking their rhetoric to an extreme. At a recent fundraiser, Hillary Clinton called out one of these groups, the alt-right movement, as a “basket of deplorables.”
On Friday, Clinton spoke about a “paranoid fringe” that has developed among the Republican party. She zeroed in on those Trump supporters and characterizes them through their “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic” views. She scolded Trump for helping spearhead this group that has become more present during this election cycle:
“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.”
Clinton was not referring to all Trump supporters, just the select few that have taken these views to heart. It wouldn’t be fair to lump all Republicans or Trump supporters in this group and she is aware of that. She said the other half of Trump supporters are disappointed in their government and should be empathized with. But some didn’t quite understand Clinton’s statement, who just heard “deplorables” and went blind. One of those people was Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, who didn’t take kindly to the statement:
Hillary, placing people in "baskets", slandering them but admitting after 8 yrs, they are "desperate for change." https://t.co/OrBkowI4Sd
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) September 10, 2016
But Trump’s new base of supporters haven’t popped up overnight, as Politico reported he has a long history of this type of rhetoric. We have seen it with Trump’s second amendment comments, that maybe subtly suggested supporters could take out Clinton if they wanted. Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center told Politico, “There is no question that there’s more violent and hateful speech,” and that fervent citizens have found a kindred spirit in Trump, who is not doing anything to tone down this rhetoric.
