Bill Clinton suggested this week that GOP nominee Donald Trump’s base comprised mostly “rednecks.”
“The other guy’s base is what I grew up in,” the former president said during a campaign stop in Fort Myers, Fla. “You know, I’m basically your standard redneck.”
The former president also recounted a moment during the 2016 Democratic primary when he went to campaign for Hillary Clinton in West Virginia – a state that they lost and predicted they would lose long before voting even took place.
“[S]he said, ‘There’s no way that we can carry it,’ and I said, ‘No way,'” Clinton said Tuesday, recounting a conversation he had with his wife about campaigning in Mountain State.
“First of all, [West Virginians] only watch Fox News,” he added to laughter. “But to be fair they think we only care our political base and the people that agree with us culturally. And it’s not true, but that’s what they think.”
Clinton said that when he got to West Virginia, he was met by a bunch of pro-Trump protesters. He said he invited them into his rally and encouraged them to reconsider their support for the GOP nominee.
“If you really believe that you can make America great again, knowing I know what it means as a white southerner,” the former president reportedly told the protesters.
Clinton told his audience Tuesday, “what [Trump]s slogan] means is, ‘I’ll give you the economy we had 15 years ago and the society you had.'”
“In other words, I’ll move you up on the social totem pole and others down,” Clinton said.
His comments came as part of a larger appeal to his audience to reach out to undecided voters and even pro-Trump supporters to tell them the Democratic nominee’s campaign understands them and wants to include them.
“Don’t engage in our version of all this screaming,” Clinton said. “Go out there and look people in the eye who aren’t going to vote for her and tell them we still want them to be part of America. Tell them we need them.”
“I know how they feel,” he added in reference to angry and frustrated voters, many of who have gravitated towards Trump. “And I’m telling you, the older you get, the worse it is if you look in the mirror every day and you think you can’t do anything to change the future.”
Clinton’s campaign stump speeches often include references to his childhood growing up in Arkansas, including his memories of pre-Civil Rights attitudes and the general unpleasantness of using outhouses.
