Hillary Clinton Doubles Down On Infamous ‘Deplorables’ Comment, Says It’s ‘Too Kind a Word’ For Some Trumpers

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Hillary Clinton doubled down on her controversial “deplorables” description of supporters of former President Donald Trump , saying it’s “too kind” of a word to describe some MAGA followers.

Clinton penned an op-ed titled ‘To err is human, to empathize is superhuman’ for The Washington Post this week in which she wrote about political extremism and at one point went into her famous quote from the 2016 presidential election. Clinton said calling Trump supporters a “basket of deplorables” was meant to describe his most extreme supporters, mentioning the events of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

“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. The people for whom his bigotry is a feature, not a bug. It was an unfortunate choice of words and bad politics, but it also got at an important truth. Just look at everything that has happened in the years since, from Charlottesville to Jan. 6,” Clinton wrote.

Clinton previously expressed regret over her comment, which was widely shared by critics. In 2016, Clinton said she was “grossly generalistic” when describing Trump supporters. At a New York fundraiser, she accused Trump of lifting up racist and xenophobic people.

In her new op-ed, Clinton said “deplorables” was too kind of a word to describe the worst of MAGA.

“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,” she wrote.

Clinton went on to describe meeting with a former white supremacist who works to “deprogram and rehabilitate” people from hate groups. Clinton wrote that she believes her “deplorable” comment is “objectively true,” but she also wants to believe everyone deserves redemption, saying, “empathy for someone you deeply, passionately disagree with is hard but necessary.”

“Talking about the ‘deplorables’ in 2016, I said, ‘Some of those folks, they are irredeemable.’ Part of me would still say this is objectively true. Just look at the lack of remorse from many of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists who’ve been convicted of sedition and other crimes. But another part of me wants to believe something else. I’d like to believe there’s goodness in everyone and a chance at redemption, no matter how remote,” she wrote.