Hillary Clinton said, “You can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the ‘basket of deplorables.’ Right? Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it.”
In a pretty lame attempt to refute that statement,* Donald Trump’s son, Eric Trump tweeted a photo he claimed was from a Friday rally in Pensacola, Fla.:
Look at the #BasketOfDeplorables in Pensacola Florida last night! What a horrible statement. #CrookedHillary pic.twitter.com/GfevT0KUjd
— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) September 10, 2016
But Donald Trump drew that large crowd a year ago in Dallas, not last week in Pensacola. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban pointed out the inaccurate photo:
Here are actual photos of the Pensacola rally:
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
*Of course Donald Trump has supporters. Showing them – even accurately – does not invalidate Clinton’s claim. We should spend more time evaluating Clinton’s statement on the merits rather than denouncing its shock value.