Hillary Clinton Brushes Off Trump’s New Nickname, ‘Crooked Hillary’
Hillary Clinton completely disregarded Donald Trump’s new nickname for her, “Crooked Hillary,” stating that she really couldn’t care less about the Republican front-runner’s jibes.
In an interview with George Stephanopoulos, ABC reports Clinton as saying the following dismissively,
“He [Trump] can say whatever he wants to say about me, I really could care less […] I don’t respond to Donald Trump and his string of insults about me.”
Trump had called Hillary Clinton “crooked” at rally in upstate New York. His previous monikers for Clinton included names like “incompetent Hillary,” but as the New York Times sardonically notes, the adjective “incompetent” has “four syllables, and Mr. Trump tends to pick names that are shorter and likelier to stick with voters.”
With her brush-off, Clinton did not fall for Trump’s usual ad hominem tactics upon his opponents where he attacks the candidate with short and degrading nicknames. In the past he has referred to his former opponent Marco Rubio as “Little Marco,” Ted Cruz as “Lyin’ Ted,” and Jeb Bush as “Low Energy Jeb.”
Hillary Clinton on Donald Trump: “Everyone sees this bigotry for what it is.” https://t.co/ce5TAf5rnw pic.twitter.com/4KraUfezad
— ABC News (@ABC) April 14, 2016
In response to Donald Trump’s similar new nickname for her (“Crooked Hillary”), Clinton also told Stephanopoulos that she understands Trump’s technique of undermining his rivals with name-calling, and that she can take care of herself.
But what really bothers Hillary Clinton, however, is Trump’s name-calling habits about others.
“What I’m concerned about is how he goes after everybody else. He goes after women. He goes after Muslims. He goes after immigrants. He goes after people with disabilities. He is hurting our unity at home. He is undermining the values that we stand for in New York and across America. And he’s hurting us around the world.”
With this, Clinton turned Donald Trump’s degrading nickname for her into an argument against his political incorrectness and degrading statements towards not just other candidates, but other members of society.
She also brought up the idea of unity — that politics is not about alienating large sections of society by insulting them (by being politically incorrect or making up degrading nicknames for them), but bringing them together.
In a campaign message, Hillary Clinton reiterated the idea that unity is important in politics, rather than demeaning each other. In a direct reference to Donald Trump’s name-calling, she tweeted out the following.
Donald Trump says we can solve America’s problems by turning against each other. He’s dead wrong.https://t.co/0Ajcnie16h
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 11, 2016
Trump has previously responded to Hillary Clinton’s accusations of his political incorrectness and demeaning nicknames in a Facebook post in July, 2015, where he said the following.
“She speaks about ‘my tone’ and that’s the problem with our country’s leaders. They are more worried about tone than results! It’s not about being nice — it’s about being competent.”
Here, Donald Trump completely dismisses the idea of being politically correct — it’s not about “being nice,” but getting things done, even if that means putting unity at stake and calling his opponents as well as other members of society degrading nicknames.
By not rising to Trump’s insults and calling him out on his insults towards others, Hillary Clinton highlights an important issue about political correctness.
Is politics about just being competent while demeaning members of society and other candidates (as Trump says), or is Clinton right in noting that it is important to keep in mind that unity is very important and to be civil in the political race towards opponents and other members of society?
[Photo bu Justin Sullivan/ Getty Images]
