Baskets have never been so controversial. Hillary Clinton’s now-infamous “baskets of deplorables” jibe ignited a fierce political spat online: Trump got angry, Clinton somewhat apologized, and then Trump used an Obama quote to attempt a checkmate.
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It all started when Clinton, speaking at a LGBT fundraiser in New York, described half of Trump’s supporters as comprising “a basket of deplorables.”
“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables … the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic – you name it,” Clinton said, even though admitting she was being “grossly generalistic.” She went on to say that these people “are not America.”
Trump immediately jumped on the comment calling it “SO INSULTING” and claimed it would cost Hillary dearly at the polls.
He quickly changed his tactics to try and play to Clinton’s supporters claiming he would respect them regardless of whether they vote for him or not.
Donald Trump Jr. jumped in to remind the Clintons that they have a “deplorable” political record of their own.
Even the graves of dead veterans saw a piece of the action, a picture of which Trump Jr. also retweeted.
Not to be outdone Eric Trump joined in with this zinger. Unfortunately, he used an old rally photo and incorrectly attributed it to Florida, which the unforgiving internet soon pointed out.
Clinton issued an apparent apology, claiming to regret the comment but adding that she “won't stop calling out bigotry and racist rhetoric in this campaign.”
Trump then showed a strong hand when he retweeted a 2012 tweet from President Obama reading “RT if you agree: We need a President who is fighting for all Americans, not one who writes off nearly half the country.” Originally aimed at Mitt Romney, the tweet’s context is a blow to Clinton who is probably still searching through Trump’s backlog for something of similar context.
#BasketofDeplorables soon trended online, with Twitter users on both sides of the fence getting in on the action.
Trump supporters then created the hashtag #DeplorablesForTrump to show their support for the candidate and outrage at Clinton. One tweet read: “#Hillary is truly anti-American. She hates us. For once she told the truth”.