Discussion: Clinton Regrets Saying 'Half' Of Trump Backers Are In 'Basket Of Deplorables'

Goddammit, Hillary.

:angry:

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I’m so annoyed right now. Why did you have to apologize for speaking the truth? Do you think anyone from that basket will support you now?

Damn, Democrats. A spine, please!!!

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Well, apparently she and her staff don’t read TPM or don’t care.

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WTF? Even if it wasn’t an apology, it looks weak.

The basket comment was spot on, why back down?

Even if the basket comment was a tactical error, why double down and make yourself look spineless?

I just hope someone from the HRC campaign reads these TPM threads so they feel the depth of frustration from some very informed supporters…

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Why did she have to apologize when trump insults different groups of people daily?

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When I read the remarks early this morning, I freaked out. They sounded awful, because it’s never a good idea to attack a candidate’s supporters. It’s too fine a line to walk. But ok, I thought, maybe she can get through this, maybe she can bring the discussion back to Trump’s racist appeasement.

As long as she doesn’t apologize, as long as she holds steady.

This is just unbelievable.

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I just want to bang my head against a wall. Of ALL the possible responses, this is the weakest and most demoralizing. I simply can’t believe it.

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smh

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I can’t believe it.

HA HA HA.

Told. You. So.

Look, she did not back down completely. She was gracious, but she used the opening to talk about the trash in Trump’s basket. I’m not going to cry.

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The point of all this was to get it into the press. It’s there. Now we can discuss exactly what percentage of people belong in the basket. That there is a basket is now “out there”.

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I don’t know, i apparently have a very different take on this statement. Maybe I’m not a politically savvy as you guys but, this seems like the perfect response to me. She didn’t really apologize, she actually doubled down on her original statement.

Basically, she quantified well, maybe it’s not really half of the Trump supporters that are racist. But, does the amount really matter?

What matters, IMO, is that the “basket” has been put out there and, now it needs to be addressed. Hell she might have even mollified some people in “Basket B”

The only thing that pissed me off was the obvious click bait title.

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What she actually said wasn’t nearly as bad as the commentariat will try to make it out to be, on the ‘apology’. But it could’ve been stronger:

“It was wrong of me to say ‘half’, and I regret saying that word. Because you know, some of them, I’m sure, are nice people. Oh, wait, does that sound familiar? Listen, people, if you’re going to support a man who has based the center of his campaign around racist hate-speech and incendiary lies, then you’re supporting racism. And you know what they call people who support racism? Racists. You might not want to be one. I’m sure a lot of you don’t want to be, and don’t like thinking of yourselves that way… but you want truth, you get truth. If you don’t like what the truth says about you, that’s not the truth’s fault. So I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said ‘half’. You’re all in the handbasket, and we’d just as well not let you take the rest of us straight to hell.”

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I think this is great. She regrets assigning a fixed percentage to the number of Trump supporters who are racist, bigots, homophobes, white supremises, etc, but she stands by calling those people deplorable. That isn’t apologizing, or being weak. It is a segue to attacking Trump again. IMO, She should keep on doing this. If I were her, I would also call out those “values voters” who Trump was pandering to. Seriously, did Jesus say to “take the oil” after wrongly invading another country? Did he say, “Blessed are those who use their wealth and power to rip off other people”? HYpocrites.

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I hope you’re right. I really do. Because from where I sit, this looks like typical spineless Democratic nonsense.

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Same here.

Fuckin’ liberals.

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Fox News already is saying she “regrets” the deplorables speech, but I think the full quotes of her will indicate she isn’t backing down, only that possibly ‘some’ replaces ‘half’ for deplorables. I believe she will kick this can until it is too flat to kick anymore.

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She is keeping the subject in the headlines - that’s the point - and she is pivoting from vagaries to specifics, that’s also keeping the discussion alive, all of which is good for her and bad for him.

Any day you are defending yourself against charges of being the second coming of Adolf Hilter is a bad day, and Trump will be defending himself against the Birther charge from now until Taco Tuesday.

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Except the media will latch onto it as an apology and retreat, and they will ignore the fact that she still stands by the basic charge. For example:

https://twitter.com/AP/status/774672779828486145

ETA: Well, whaddaya know. Unlike the false Clinton Foundation tweet that AP left up for two weeks, they replaced this incorrect tweet quickly. But the corrected tweet still doesn’t convey that Hillary was standing by her basic criticism. And the tweet doesn’t link to their story, which isn’t half bad! They’ll get the hang of this internet thing eventually.

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