Hillary Clinton Defends ‘Basket of Deplorables’ Comment

Former Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has been on a finger-pointing tour, blaming anyone and everyone for her election loss to Donald Trump.

When she was finally handed an opportunity to accept some blame for her political failings, she failed once more.

During an interview with CBS’s Jane Pauley, Clinton was confronted about her infamous “basket of deplorables” comment from the campaign, in which she identified half of Trump’s supporters as “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic.”

Shortly after making those offensive statements, Clinton tried to express regret for her words.

She was anything but apologetic, however, during the interview in which Pauley specifically asked her about those words that haunted her throughout the rest of the campaign.

It actually went beyond doubling-down, as she mentioned the word ‘deplorable’ in her response three times trying to justify her comments.

“Well I thought Trump was behaving in a deplorable manner. I thought a lot of his appeals to voters were deplorable,” she said. “I thought his behavior–as we saw in the Access Hollywood tape was deplorable and there were a large number of people who didn’t care. It did not matter to them.”

Odd that she mentions the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump talked about lewd actions, especially knowing her husband Bill Clinton actually engaged in those actions with multiple women over the years.

It apparently did not matter to her.

Pauley, to her credit, would not let up on Hillary, accusing her of ‘feeding into it.’

Exasperated, Clinton claimed it wouldn’t have mattered.

“They were already energized,” she shouted.

Pauley responded, “But you offended some people who didn’t personally feel deplorable.”

“I don’t buy that,” Clinton retorted.

Hillary went on to dismiss the idea that she may have offended some Trump supporters who did not feel they were “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, or Islamaphobic.”

She instead called her comments a “political gift” to Trump.

“I’m sorry I gave him a political gift of any kind, but I don’t think that was determinative,” she said.

Even Jake Tapper at CNN admitted the comments played a role in the election, though the media didn’t understand it at the time.

“I don’t think I, or many people living in bubbles fully got how much that would’ve bothered people,” Tapper said.

Hillary may be the last person on the planet to not realize the impact it had.

What do you think of Hillary Clinton standing by her “basket of deplorables” comment? Share your thoughts below!

Rusty Weiss has been covering politics for over 15 years. His writings have appeared in the Daily Caller, Fox... More about Rusty Weiss

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