Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:10 pm
Although Hillary Clinton is running against a man who casts himself as the ultimate alpha male hero, capable of striking down enemies with mere words, it is Hillary Clinton who brings the towering strength of courage to the stage.
Thus we find Clinton in the middle of a media storm for saying that half of Donald Trump’s supporters are a basket of deplorables. “You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up,” Clinton told a crowd Friday.
Clinton has already apologized — note this, because it’s something Trump does not do, apologizing requires personal responsibility and holding oneself to a higher standard, as is appropriate for a President of the United States. Clinton apologized for generalizing, but said she won’t stop calling out “bigotry and racist rhetoric in this campaign.”
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“Last night I was ‘grossly generalistic,’ and that’s never a good idea. I regret saying ‘half’ — that was wrong,” Clinton said in a statement.
“But let’s be clear, what’s really ‘deplorable’ is that Donald Trump hired a major advocate for the so-called ‘alt-right’ movement to run his campaign and that David Duke and other white supremacists see him as a champion of their values.”
“It’s deplorable that Trump has built his campaign largely on prejudice and paranoia and given a national platform to hateful views and voices, including by retweeting fringe bigots with a few dozen followers and spreading their message to 11 million people.”
“It’s deplorable that he’s attacked a federal judge for his ‘Mexican heritage,’ bullied a Gold Star family because of their Muslim faith, and promoted the lie that our first black president is not a true American. ”
“So I won’t stop calling out bigotry and racist rhetoric in this campaign,” Clinton vowed.
“I also meant what I said last night about empathy, and the very real challenges we face as a country where so many people have been left out and left behind. As I said, many of Trump’s supporters are hard-working Americans who just don’t feel like the economy or our political system are working for them. I’m determined to bring our country together and make our economy work for everyone, not just those at the top. Because we really are ‘stronger together.’â€
But still, some people in the media are clutching their pearls and questioning if she has actually surveyed Trump’s supporters, because you see in spite of everything we see and hear, we can’t be sure if Donald Trump’s supporters are made up by a consistent group of white nationalists, bigots, racists, and misogynists.
But as Joan Walsh pointed out, it wasn’t the conservative media getting hysterical over Clinton speaking a raw truth. It is the main stream media. The conservative media has been a party to the spewing hatred of the Trump cult, as have the liberal media. (Politicus received an email from a Trump supporter wishing cancer on our children the other day, as but one example.)
Mainstream media predictably aghast at "deplorables." Conservative media targeted by Trump backers aren't. https://t.co/ccjCsIhU1q
— Joan Walsh (@joanwalsh) September 10, 2016
So the media once again falls victim to the idea that we must always give Trump another chance and the benefit of the doubt, whilst Hillary Clinton must be doubted.
This is an odd bar to set, given that Trump is the proven consistent liar who doesn’t even bother to source his lies other than a vague “I saw it on TV†or “I saw it on the Internetâ€, and Clinton is the person who allows the press to parse her every single word, so that when she used the wrong word in an interview with Chris Wallace, it became a 4 day news cycle.
There are journalists suggesting this is Clinton’s “Romney 47%†remark, as if she ever had a chance of getting the white nationalist neo-Nazi racist vote or even wanted it.
Perhaps most telling about these assumptions is they deny what we know to be a true part of the electorate following and supporting Trump. He has the KKK support, and it shows at his rallies. The New York Times did a video of the hate his followers spew precisely because it was so out of the ordinary. They shout “Kill her!†and “Lock her up!â€
NBC’s Katy Tur refused to allow her experiences with Trump supporters over the last 15 months to be downplayed by a Trump surrogate while on MSNBC Friday.
Tur held her own and said that in city after city, the same deplorable things are being said by his supporters, and that Donald Trump hasn’t backed away from any of the hateful things he’s said.
Donald Trump won’t “woman up”, if you will, when he makes a mistake, because Donald Trump has no moral courage. Trump is a draft dodging coward.
Tur knows this all too well, she had to be escorted out of a Trump rally by Secret Service after Trump mocked and belitted her as part of his “strong man†routine.
Some progressives fear that Clinton is being divisive by speaking the truth. But to say nothing and not call out this deplorable alt-right rhetoric and hate is to enable it. Clinton is no coward.
Clinton is no coward.
Clinton called out the NRA when few else would. She has weathered storms of all kinds and stood strong through them.
People might not agree with Clinton, they might not even like her. But there is no doubt that in Hillary Clinton, we have a warrior of fierce courage who believes deeply in social justice for all.
Hillary Clinton won’t look the other way as others are mistreated. She gets right in the mess and takes a stand.
Meanwhile, we had Republicans trying to force Clinton to apologize to Trump and his supporters as they support Donald Trump even after he suggested Hillary Clinton could be shot if she won.
Yes, these pillars of outrage stand by Trump even after his aide twice called for Clinton to be shot by a firing squad.
When you have no moral courage, you have no right to demand others not speak the truth about your failings.
Hillary Clinton has once again spoken a truth. Ironically, the people who whine about not being able to say awful things because liberals expect them to be “politically correct” are outraged when someone calls them on their behavior.
So it’s not that they value freedom of expression; it’s that they want to be free to harass and intimidate others who might not enjoy the same privileges as they do, simply due to race or religion or sex. They want the freedom to say whatever they want, but they want to shut down anyone who doesn’t agree with them.
Clinton apologized because she felt she generalized too much. But no reality based person can say she was wrong that a lot of the behavior from the alt-right is deplorable and Donald Trump does lift them up.
Clinton has true courage and it shines at moments like this.
Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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