Then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is seen making a speech in Allendale, Michigan, during her 2016 campaign. (Jeff Kowalsky – AFP / Getty Images)
By Samuel Short September 26, 2024 at 1:38pm
Hillary Clinton will forever be stuck in 2016.
After the former first lady and former secretary of state suffered an election loss as the Democratic presidential candidate that year to the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, it seems the entirety of her identity is constructed around that fateful election cycle that saw her hopes dashed.
Notably, in September 2016, while speaking at a fundraiser in New York, Clinton infamously said Trump and half of his supporters belong in a “basket of deplorables.” Now — as her opinion piece from Wednesday made clear — she still holds onto that view and then some.
Writing for the Washington Post, Clinton brought up the remark which had spawned so much backlash.
“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.”
At one point in her Post commentary, she admitted that characterization was “an unfortunate choice of words and bad politics.” That appears to be consistent with an apology issued during that campaign, as Clinton made clear during her second debate with Trump.
However, the former Democratic candidate then reversed course.
She said she now feels that comment was not only valid, but did not go far enough. She claimed her “deplorables” comment “got at an important truth.”
Would Hillary Clinton have been a worse president than Joe Biden?
“Just look at everything that has happened in the years since, from Charlottesville to Jan. 6. The masks have come off, and if anything, ‘deplorable’ is too kind a word for the hate and violent extremism we’ve seen from some Trump supporters.”
This is quintessential Clinton.
It’s clear that she never felt genuine remorse for that comment.
She evidently only felt the need to apologize for reasons of politically expedience — to avoid further damage to her election prospects.
The truth was found in Wednesday’s piece, as she has nothing to hide now in not only defending the label, but saying harsher words are needed.
Clinton hasn’t learned, but Democrats haven’t, either.
This isn’t the language of a bygone era.
Clinton practically wrote the anti-Trump playbook now adopted by other Democrats like nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.
Her latest MSNBC interview told viewers just that, as Harris could not speak coherently about her policy without piggybacking off the name Trump.
The Democratic Party’s platform is entirely reactive to the former president. In the eight years since Hillary Clinton’s defeat, every national policy position has circled back around to him, while attempting to demonize his supporters.
Clinton is stuck in 2016, and her party is too.
Sam Short is an Instructor of History with Motlow State Community College in Smyrna, Tennessee. He holds a BA in History from Middle Tennessee State University and an MA in History from University College London.
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