Clinton defenders pressed on remark told to attack media
Hillary Clinton’s campaign is advising fellow Democrats who speak on her behalf to chastise the press for applying a different standard to her if pressed by interviewers about Clinton’s characterization of half of Donald Trump’s supporters as “deplorables.”
The advice is contained in a memo - titled “‘Deplorable’ Comment Talking Points” — sent out Saturday afternoon to Clinton surrogates preparing for television interviews or other appearances in support of the former secretary of state. A copy was obtained by the Washington Post.
During a Friday night fundraiser in New York, the Democratic presidential nominee said that “half” of Trump’s supporters can be placed in a “basket of deplorables,” meaning that they are racist, homophobic or xenophobic.
In a statement Saturday, Clinton expressed “regret” for being “grossly generalistic” and using the characterization of “half” but also said — as she has several times before — that the Republican nominee is amplifying views of the alt-right and white supremacists.
The guidance issued to surrogates says that Clinton has “apologized” — a word she did not use — for saying “most” rather than “some” and notes that “obviously not everyone supporting Trump is part of the alt right.” But, the guidance says, “it is deplorable that Trump has built his campaign largely on prejudice and paranoia and given a national platform to hateful views and voices.”
The memo goes on to say “IF PUSHED,” surrogates should raise concerns about media fairness.
“I think we can all agree that if Donald Trump said something controversial about Clinton supporters, it wouldn’t have been in his top ten list of offensive statements in day,” the advice reads. “It’s well past time the press stopped grading Trump on a curve. So is the press going to cover this story in the right (context), or are they going to hold Hillary to a different standard again? Are they going to make more out of this story than they made out of the racist, misogynistic Trump comments that got us here in the first place?”
The guidance also includes suggested comments —“only if asked” — on what to say about Clinton and her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine, being “on different pages” about whether Clinton should have apologized for the episode.
Shortly after Clinton issued a statement on the matter Saturday, Kaine, a senator from Virginia, said in an interview with the Post that he didn’t see a need for her to apologize.
The suggested response to surrogates: “Tim Kaine was making the point that she didn’t need to apologize for calling out that Donald Trump has given a platform to the alt-right and its deplorable views. And the campaign has made clear that they will continue to call out the bigotry and racist values that Donald Trump has championed in this campaign.”