Two Trump Assassination Attempts Later, Hillary Clinton Still Pushing 'Basket of Deplorables,' 'Threat to Democracy' Dangerous Narrative

Hillary Clinton stepped in hot water in 2016 when she used the phrase “basket of deplorables” to describe supporters of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. Eight years and two Trump assassination attempts later, she continues the inflammatory rhetoric against the man who defeated her in that race and is vying for a second term in office, as well as his supporters.

Promoting her new book, Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love, and Liberty, Clinton wrote a column for the Washington Post, which was adapted from that book. In it, she delved into the insulting phrase and seemed to pile on in denigrating people who have a different worldview than she does. She continued, also, to frame Trump as someone who is a danger to the world as we know it. Not only is this naive; it is extremely dangerous and careless because she, like all of us, knows that there is a desire to end Trump’s life.

She wrote:

I’ve struggled with this myself. 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.

Notice how she gets to decide if Trump is all of the despicable things she has decided he is after he chose to be a Republican president. She and others like her had no problem hobnobbing with him before that, but once he no longer fit into the box she fashioned for him, Trump was everything ugly.

She went on to continue to push the January 6 “insurrection” lie and then to say that “‘deplorable’ is too kind a word for the hate and violent extremism we’ve seen from some Trump supporters.”

Those comments are not even my point. She can think whatever she wants about Trump and his supporters, even if it’s not based in reality, but to paint her opinion as truth—excuse me, “an important truth”—is, sadly, no surprise, but no less base.