Bloomberg’s John Heilemann said Monday on Morning Joe that Hillary Clinton’s statement calling Donald Trump supporters a "basket of deplorables" is close to the definition of bigotry, with her definition of deplorable being a blanket statement about 30 million people.
Heilemann was following up on what he said Sunday on Clinton’s controversial statement.
"The point I made yesterday, which got me in trouble, was that this statement came close to at least the definition of what people think of as bigotry," Heilemann said. "That may or may not meet the dictionary definition of deplorable, of bigoted, but it’s not defensible to make that kind of blanket statement about what will likely be 30 million people."
Heilemann said that Clinton’s comments were not defensible for someone who wants to seek the office of the presidency.
Heilemann said Sunday on ABC’s This Week that Trump has repeatedly called Clinton a bigot but previously has lacked proof. He added that Clinton’s "basket of deplorable"comment violates the fundamental campaign rule that it is fine to attack the opposing candidate but one should stay away from attacking the electorate.
"And before this moment, there was never a time in which you could justify that, where she had said anything that actually kind of met the dictionary definition of bigoted. This comment kind of gets very close to the dictionary definition of bigoted and gives Trump an attack line to go back to again and again," Heilemann said on ABC.
Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski was quick to defend Clinton on Monday, pointing out the flaws in Trump’s campaign and calling for people to "get a grip."
Heilemann agreed that Clinton should call out racists, xenophobes, and nativists, and hit Trump for refusing to denounce their support when he says similar things.
"I just think that it’s not politically or probably substantively a defensible position to write off 30 million people. The reason I think that it’s not defensible, I think Hillary Clinton agrees with me, because she apologized for it," Heilemann said.