Hillary Clinton claims voters don’t ‘really understand’ midterm stakes
How deplorable!
Hillary Clinton said Tuesday night that Americans don’t “really understand” what is at stake in the midterm elections — and they haven’t grasped what it could mean if Republicans retake the House and Senate.
The comment recalled Clinton’s notorious statement during the 2016 campaign that supporters of her Republican rival, Donald Trump, were part of a “basket of deplorables” who are “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.”
Some Trump supporters adopted the moniker “deplorables” as a badge of honor, and Clinton admitted in her 2017 campaign memoir “What Happened” that the impolitic remark likely played a role in her shocking loss.
The former secretary of state made the remarks during an interview with MSNBC’s Joy Reid after she was asked if voters were aware of the supposed threat posed by the GOP.
“I think that with all of the noise that we’ve gotten in this election season, I don’t think that people are really able to grasp that,” Clinton agreed.
“But more importantly, I’m not sure they really understand the threats to their way of life.”
The former first lady specifically pointed to Social Security and Medicare, saying that GOP lawmakers led by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla. — the chair of the Republican Senate Campaign Committee — have said they’ll put the programs “up for a vote” if they regain their congressional majorities. Republicans have insisted no such vote is in prospect.
“Now, I don’t understand why every American, not just people eligible for those two programs that they have paid into, that they have worked hard for, that they have earned, are not up in arms,” Clinton said.
“We’ve got lots of problems right now in our country. We need sensible people to come together to try and solve them.
“The last thing we need is to make life even harder for the vast majority of Americans because it’s not just seniors who would have Medicare and Social Security on the chopping block. It would be their children and their grandchildren who would have to step in and fill the hole that they had left.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Clinton also criticized Republicans for their “violent rhetoric,” which she claimed was responsible for the violent attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in his home last week.
“I didn’t see a big outpouring on the part of elected officials to stand with Nancy Pelosi the way she has stood with Republicans as well as Democrats in times of real terror like on Jan. 6,” she said.
“So ask yourselves, please, why would you entrust power to people who they themselves are unable to see how terrible it is that someone may be attacked in their home or don’t really care because they somehow think it’ll get them votes or get them elected?”
“This is a real threat to the heart of democracy,” Clinton added.
Polls have shown Republicans edging ahead of Democrats on the generic congressional ballot thanks to the support of voters who say the economy and rising prices are their top issues, neither of which Clinton addressed in her rant.