Pence Defends Racist Trump Supporters: “They Are Not A Basket Of Anything”

Vice Presidential Nominee Addresses Family Research Council’s Value Voters Summit

Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence stumbled through an attempted response on Saturday to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s remarks from the night before — in which she said half of Donald Trump’s supporters belong in “a basket of deplorables.”

After acknowledging that she was “grossly generalizing,” Clinton said Trump has lifted up people who are “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it.”

Speaking at the Family Research Council’s Value Voters Summit, Pence had a little trouble recalling Clinton’s remarks. 

“Hillary Clinton, in remarks that were made in New York City just last night,” Pence said, as he began fumbling through his notes. “And let me see where someone put them here. Take your time. … 

“Hillary Clinton said last night at a big fundraiser in New York City that the millions of Americans that are supporting my running mate, were described in the most deplorable of terms. It’s extraordinary to think about. She referred to those people as ‘irredeemable,'” Pence said. 

“Hillary Clinton’s low opinion of people who support this campaign should be denounced in the strongest possible terms,” he added. “The truth of the matter is that the people who support Donald Trump’s campaign are hard-working Americans. Let me just say from the bottom of my heart, Hillary, they are not a basket of anything, they are Americans and they deserve you respect. I’ve not heard that level of disdain for Americans … since Barack Obama described people who opposed him as people who cling to their guns and religion.” 

Pence also said during his speech that “family” and “the freedom of religion” would be at the center of all of the policies in a Trump administration. And he repeated Trump’s pledge to appoint justices to the Supreme Court who are similar to the late Antonin Scalia, rather than those who “legislate from the bench instead of upholding our fundamental liberties.” 

Watch Pence’s speech in its entirety below.