Desperate Media Turns ‘Deplorables’ Against Trump

On Tuesday, reporters on Capitol Hill got a chance to ask Indiana Gov. Mike Pence a few questions at a news conference.

The first two questions were why Pence would not use the word “deplorable” against former Klansman, racist, and full-time gadfly, David Duke.

It’s just the latest tactic the media employed to shield Hillary Clinton from her statement Friday, when she said half of Donald Trump’s supporters belong in a “basket of deplorables” and are “irredeemable.”

“The Left is trying to make Pence prove Hillary’s point that people are irredeemably deplorable … That’s not the Christian view and it’s not the conservative view.”

It was the biggest mistake of the campaign season — and perhaps the worst since Mike Dukakis wore a helmet and got into that tank for a drive in 1988. It perfectly defined Clinton’s elite attitude toward huge swaths of Americans. In fact, the comment may not be a gaffe. The remark is likely heartfelt, and if so, one can understand why Pence says such sentiments disqualify Clinton as a presidential candidate.

The media couldn’t have that. On Sunday, they decided to spin the issue against Donald Trump and Pence.

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Appearing on Wolf Blitzer’s CNN show Monday, Pence was asked about the word “deplorable,” but not in the way he expected.

“OK, let’s get into this whole issue that Hillary Clinton raised the other night when she spoke of the ‘basket of deplorables,'” Blitzer said as he began his question, sounding like he was being dragged somewhere he didn’t want to go.

But then Blitzer went where Blitzer wanted to go.

“Will you call [David Duke] a deplorable?” Blitzer asked.

“I’m not in the name-calling business, Wolf,” Pence replied. “You know me better than that.”

That’s not much to use, but it was enough for Clinton allies in the media to pounce.

“Mike Pence Refuses To Call David Duke ‘Deplorable,'” The Huffington Post headline read. The liberal-leaning website made it the top story Monday night, and spelled it out in bright red letters.

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USA Today also chimed in: “Mike Pence refuses to call David Duke ‘deplorable.'”

And the Los Angeles Times wrote one of the nastiest headlines: “What’s worse: ‘Deplorables’ or David Duke’s support? Mike Pence weighs in.”

Hillary Clinton, recovering somewhere from pneumonia, loved the backup from newsrooms. She immediately attacked Pence on Twitter.

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Late Tuesday afternoon, she attacked again, even being so bold to use the word “deplorable.” And she said Pence is courting skinheads.

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Longtime media watchdogs see the press trying to help Clinton out of the ditch by generating a timely distraction from her self-imposed problems.

“The Left is trying to make Pence prove Hillary’s point that people are irredeemably deplorable,” said Dan Gainor, vice president of Business and Culture at the Media Research Center. “That’s not the Christian view and it’s not the conservative view. Actions are deplorable. Biased journalism is certainly deplorable. But even the hacks who commit it are not a basket of deplorables.”

Pence’s virtue — not using the D-word — will likely be tested repeatedly in the next few days. Some in the mainstream media have gone beyond the “gotcha” tactics of Wolf Blitzer and the Huffington Post, and are full-bore embracing Clinton’s smear of ordinary Americans, despite the fact Hillary Clinton herself is “sort of” apologizing for it.

Indeed, some are taking this opportunity to vent on those they feel are the racist, dull-witted, Republican-leaning Americans who have so complicated this election for Clinton.

“Hillary Clinton may have been unwise to say half of Donald Trump’s supporters are racists and other ‘deplorables.’ But she wasn’t wrong,” wrote Dana Milbank of The Washington Post. “If anything, when it comes to Trump’s racist support, she might have low-balled the number.”

Milbank claimed to have looked at research done on those who possess “stereotypes.” But Milbank doesn’t need research to confirm his bias.

The focus on Trump and Pence also gives the media cover not to talk about her health concerns — arguably a bigger issue than the “deplorables” remark — and it provides cover to avoid her hypocrisy. Only days earlier, Hillary tweeted this: “If Donald Trump doesn’t show all Americans the respect they deserve, he doesn’t deserve to be their president.”

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And media and liberals love to paint Republicans as mean, racist, and nasty. It’s old hat.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid indicated where the Democrats would be going in the 2016 elections, last year, with this 2015 tweet: “Racism has long been prevalent in Republican politics.”

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The topic even has its own sub-folder at The Huffington Post website titled “Republican Racism.”

The media, however, may soon realize it doesn’t pay to defame millions of Americans. On CNN, Milbank clarified his column.

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“I’m not making the argument that half or more of Trump’s supporters are putting on sheets at night,” said Milbank. Many people smeared by Milbank will be happy to hear that.

Some compare the media turning the issue back on Trump and Pence (and millions of their supporters) to the media’s constant quizzing of GOP candidates on the rape exception for abortion, in the 2012 elections. The candidates who didn’t support exceptions tripped up in their answers, especially former U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, who famously mishandled the answer.

He lost his Senate race.

Gainor thinks Clinton’s remark is worthy of coverage, and that the media’s Clinton boosters will fail.

“Where are the journalists interviewing everyone on the Hill and in every statehouse asking if Hillary’s actions were deplorable?” Gainor said. “They simply refuse. This is an attempt to use the Akin strategy on Trump and it won’t work. This is Hillary’s deplorable action.”