A Washington Post contributor and professor of international politics at Tufts University rang in the new year of supposed unity by admonishing 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for being too nice declaring half the country “deplorable.”
“Back in 2016 Hillary Clinton caught all kinds of hell for saying that half of Trump’s supporters fell into a ‘basket of deplorables’ and retrospect I fear she was too optimistic,” wrote Professor Daniel Drezner on Twitter Saturday.
Clinton’s issued the controversial remarks characterizing her Republican opponent’s supporters as “deplorable” at a September fundraiser in the midst of the 2016 election, smearing the millions of Americans who might dare cast a ballot for Trump “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it.”
The statements immediately became a signature line of attack from Republicans featuring the comments prominently in campaign ads.
Then-candidates Donald Trump and Mike Pence each brought up Clinton’s deplorable remarks during the presidential debates as illustrative of Clinton’s worldview holding half the nation in contempt. While Clinton ultimately captured the popular vote, nearly 63 million Americans cast their ballots for Trump, enough in key Electoral College states for Clinton’s deplorables to hand Trump the keys to the White House.
In November last year, more than 74 millions Americans voted to re-elect the president, a more than 10 million vote increase from 2016 while still falling short of his Democratic opponent at more than 81 million.
