President Joe Biden embraced divisive rhetoric during his speech at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Monday night when he said Trump supporters “can’t think, can’t read very well.”
The president issued his insult, which echoes Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” line from 2016, when he speaking about education.
“How can we be the greatest nation in the world without the best education system in the world,” he said. “Donald Trump and the Republican friends, they not only can’t think, they can’t read very well.”
After the audience laughed, Biden said, “Seriously, think about it. Look at their Project 2025. They want to do away with a part of education.”
In 2016, then-Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton faced scrutiny when she referred to Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables.”
“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?” Clinton said. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.”
The Trump campaign ripped her comments at the time.
“Just when Hillary Clinton said she was going to start running a positive campaign, she ripped off her mask and revealed her true contempt for everyday Americans,” the campaign said at the time.