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Trump Seizes a Golden Opportunity
Hillary Clinton crossed a line Friday night when she borrowed a line from Barack Obama’s playbook and demonized those who disagree with her, denouncing one-quarter of her fellow Americans as sexists, racists, homophobes, and Islamophobes and castigating them as a “basket of deplorables.” It is one thing to attack a political candidate or even a political party. When one thinks that they have gone astray, they are fair game. It is another to go after their voters; and today, when Donald Trump responded to this vile attempt to set American against American and to sow the seeds of civil strife, he hit a home run:
I was . . . deeply shocked and alarmed this Friday to hear my opponent attack, slander, smear and demean these wonderful, amazing people who are supporting our campaign.
Our support comes from every part of America, and every walk of life. We have the support of cops and soldiers, carpenters and welders, the young and the old, and millions of working class families who just want a better future.
These were the people Hillary Clinton so viciously demonized. These were among the countless Americans that Hillary Clinton called deplorable, irredeemable and un-American. She called these patriotic men and women every vile name in the book – she called them racist, sexist, xenophobic, and Islamaphobic.
She called them a “basket of deplorables” in both a speech and an interview. She divides people into baskets as though they were objects, not human beings.
Hillary Clinton made these comments at one of her high-dollar fundraisers in Wall Street.
She and her wealthy donors all had a good laugh. They were laughing at the very people who pave the roads she drives on, paint the buildings she speaks in, and keep the lights on in her auditorium.
Hillary Clinton is an insider, supported by powerful insiders, attacking Americans who have no political power.
Hillary Clinton spoke with hatred and derision for the people who make this country run.
She spoke with contempt for the people who thanklessly follow the rules, pay their taxes, and scratch out a living for their families.
While Hillary Clinton lives a sequestered life behind gates and walls and guards, she mocks and demeans hardworking Americans who only want their own families to enjoy a fraction of the security enjoyed by our politicians.
After months of hiding from the press, Hillary Clinton has revealed her true thoughts.
She revealed herself to be a person who looks down on the proud citizens of our country as subjects for her to rule over.
Her comments displayed the same sense of arrogance and entitlement that led her to violate federal law as Secretary of State, hide and delete her emails, put classified information in the reach of our enemies, lie to Congress, and sell government favors and access through her Foundation.
It’s the same attitude that explains why Hillary Clinton refuses to take accountability for the deadly disasters she helped to create in Iraq, in Syria and in Libya.
To this day, she still won’t take accountability for her role in unleashing ISIS across the Middle East – or for putting Iran on the path to a nuclear weapon.
Hillary Clinton believes she is above the law, that she is above accountability, and that she is above each and every one of you.
Our campaign is about giving voice to the voiceless. It’s about representing the forgotten men and women of this country.
I’m here to represent everyone, but especially those who are struggling against injustice and unfairness.
I am running so that the powerful can no longer beat up on the powerless. I’m running to take on the special interests, the big donors, and the corrupt political insiders.
I am running to be your voice.
I am not, as most of you know, an admirer of Donald Trump. I greatly regret that he was given the Republican nomination, and I fear that, if elected to the Presidency, he (as well as Hillary Clinton) will make a bad situation worse. But I will say this. In this speech, Mr. Trump said what needed saying. If he says it again and again and again, if he does not get distracted, if he makes this the theme of his campaign, if he relentlessly stays on message, I believe that he will win, and he will have earned that victory.
Hillary Clinton let the mask slip on Friday. She said out loud what she and a majority of her fellow liberals think about the rest of us, and a great many liberal opinion leaders chimed in to indicate their agreement. Every Republican candidate should seize on this, and they should all challenge their Democratic opponents to repudiate the Democratic candidate’s vilification of their fellow Americans.
There are moments when the truth slips out. We cannot rely on Pravda-on-the-Hudson, on Pravda-on-the-Potomac, and on Pravda-on-the-Airways to do anything but deep-six Mrs. Clinton’s remarks. They will be burned into the memories of the American people if and only if the Trump campaign and the Republicans running for office unite in hammering away at this theme. When this electoral season is over, Mrs. Clinton’s remarks should be the one thing that everyone remembers. For her remarks have one great virtue: they crystallize what everyone fears about her and about today’s Democratic Party.
Published in Politics
This is an excellent plan, Professor Rahe.
I am not a Trump supporter, either, and I agree that this line of attack is effective. It is effective because it is true. It is all the more effective because many Trump supporters suspect that even politicians on the right have similar disdain for them.
From your key strokes, Professor, to God’s eyes!
If the average voter only knew with what profound contempt they were regarded by the average “liberal opinion leader,” the typical elite media “personality,” and the Democrat Presidential candidate I think there would be a 95% voter turnout.
It gets more (I’ll do that grammar, since I won’t say “better” or “worse”). Clinton doubled down on the remarks Trump so rightfully has taken her to task over when the next day she expressed her regret that she said “half.” She did not offer a syllable of apology for her scurrilous characterization. She did, though, as have most of the NLMSM, with Clinton-esque dishonesty, masquerade that subsequent doubling-down as an apology.
The day after that, her running mate Tim Kaine, tripled down, and insisted that Clinton’s pseudo-apology was unwarranted; she was right the first time.
Yet watch the NLMSM do its best to suppress this story.
Eric Hines
I was listening to Medved and apparently it was the second time she used the “basket of deplorables” line. She’d used it the day before during an interview? event? with the Israeli press.
Profoundly agree!!
Wonderfully spoken. Please God, let Trump keep talking like this.
I read that Tim Kaine vigorously endorsed her statement. If she drops out, we can hang it on him as well.
This was an overall smart strategy. Someone that actually speaks English wrote this speech for Trump and they took his phone away so he wouldn’t say stupid…..stuff…..on Twitter. The speech is great because it’s true….unlike his speech where he said offhandedly that he helped clean up the debris “a little” after 911. Dude is honest like Brian Williams when speaking off the cuff. Lol
Good Heavens. It’s almost as if the man has hired Peggy Noonan to write his speeches.
Whatever next?
Dr. Rahe,
A new set of Trump ADs will be starting in the 4 battleground states, PA, OHIO, FLORIDA, and NORTH CAROLINA on Friday. It will be interesting to see if Trump can pick up on the theme. It should resonate pretty well in all 4 states.
Regards,
Jim
Nothing vague about it; he was quite explicit.
Hillary Clinton’s assertion that half of Donald Trump’s supporters fit into a “basket of deplorables” is not something for which she needs to apologize, her Democratic running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine (Va.), said Saturday in an interview.
Eric Hines
This. And it’s disgusting.
I want my “deplorable, irredeemable” t-shirt. I’ll wear it all the time.
Though I’m not a Trump fan, I have to say, there are speeches I want him to just keep giving. Keep it up, Donald—don’t stop.
I can’t listen to him anymore because of his Never stance. Has he changed his mind?
An excellent idea! @blueyeti, @ejhill!
If this doesn’t convince you #Nevers to vote for Trump, nothing will. We need to defeat the Democrats, not by a little but by a lot. Please reconsider and help.
A large and a medium for my wife and me.
There are merchants already merchanting. Zazzle needs to get on the stick. Or in the basket. Or something.
Eric Hines
It was a great juxtapositional speech said at the right time, for the right reason, with the right tone. And yes, the fact that Tim Kaine seconded her opinion puts this supposedly moderate Democrat under the same cloud of shame…just in case Hillary is lying about her health. Oh, she wouldn’t do THAT, would she?
I don’t listen to him much anymore for the same reason as you; but add boring to the list. Along with condescending.
I listened to him once last week and today; I will say he appears to be softening a bit. He said something positive last week and today was positive about Trump’s handling of Hillary’s health and the basket issue.
What amazes me is, most of these comments, and the OP, indicate that this speech is something different from what Trump has been saying all along. It’s not: in the necessarily loud, bombastic style befitting political rallies, the reductive rhetoric suited to “the stump”, it’s always been his message. This is the reason he won the primaries.
I’m happy you gentlefolk can hear him at last.
Please, please: whatever gods may be: let it not be too late.
God bless Kellyanne Conway!
Well, isn’t that just big of him? Glad to know I’m not alone in my opinion of him.:-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEOTg3uHa-o
Just found this:
Deplorable me
Don’t get out the plastic. No longer available.
Natalie Cole sings Deplorable, That’s What You Are
This post should really be on the Main Feed
If John McCain had responded to “Bitter Clingers” like this we might not be in this mess.
It is on the Main Feed.
True.