Former President Bill Clinton says Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan is racist, despite using the exact phrase himself several times during his 1992 presidential campaign.
During a campaign event Wednesday for his wife Hillary Clinton, the 42nd president said Mr. Trump’s rallying cry to “Make America Great Again” is a racist dog whistle to white Southerners.
“That message where ’I’ll give you America great again’ is if you’re a white Southerner, you know exactly what it means, don’t you?” Mr. Clinton said. “What it means is ’I’ll give you an economy you had 50 years ago, and I’ll move you back up on the social totem pole and other people down.’”
But as Fox News pointed out, the former president has used the exact phrase several times in his political career.
At a 1991 campaign event in Little Rock, Arkansas, Mr. Clinton declared, “Together, we can make America great again.”
He used the same phrase again during a speech in 1992 and during a television interview that same year.
In a campaign ad for his wife in 2008, Mr. Clinton said, “It’s time for another comeback, time to make America great again.”
Clips of the Democrat repeatedly using the slogan aired Friday on “Fox & Friends.”
“That performance is really something,” Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway reacted. “Bill Clinton is known as a very strong campaigner, a great voice in politics — but not this cycle.”
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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