Republicans on Saturday seized upon a remark Hillary Clinton made that called half of Donald Trump’s supporters “deplorables,” arguing that it is a slander similar to one made by 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney that dogged him in the final weeks of the campaign.
Though Clinton’s comment was incendiary and she apologized Saturday for making generalizations about so many of Trump's supporters, it is different from Romney's so-called 47% remark for several notable reasons.
Romney was recorded on video saying at a fundraiser that 47% of Americans would automatically vote for President Obama because they were dependent upon government and paid no taxes, and that his job was not to worry about them. There was an immediate uproar that he was denigrating almost half the nation, including veterans and seniors.
Clinton, speaking at a fundraiser Friday night in New York City, said half of Trump’s supporters are a “basket of deplorables," who are racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic or Islamaphobic.
Here are some differences to keep in mind.
--The 47% remark dovetailed neatly with a narrative the Obama campaign had built throughout the summer that Romney was a heartless corporate chieftain. Clinton’s remark is an extension of her recent message that Trump does not represent the GOP moderates she is hoping to court..
--The voters Romney denigrated were voters whose support he was trying to win – working-class, blue-collar families in places like eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania who felt the economy had left them behind. Clinton is not seeking the support of the people she smeared, voters who believe in Trump's proposals such as banning Muslims from entering the nation or building an enormous border wall and making Mexico pay for it.
--Romney’s remarks were surreptitiously recorded at a fundraiser that was closed to the press. Clinton made her remarks at a fundraiser in front of the press.
--Clinton has called a segment of Trump’s supporters “deplorables” before, most recently in an interview with an Israeli television station earlier this week. Saying this group comprises half of Trump’s supporters – meaning millions of Americans – is new, which triggered her expression of regret.
All that said, few people believe that the 47% remark is the only reason Romney lost the 2012 election. Rather he failed – winning 47% of the vote, ironically – because of the Obama campaign’s success at defining him early, the Democrats’ vastly superior ground game and Romney’s inability to connect with voters.
