Hillary Clinton’s remarks at a fundraiser Friday calling half of Donald Trump’s supporters “ deplorables ” were not entirely new. The story was straightforward, yet members of the media managed once more to show themselves flummoxed when conveying facts accurately and in context.

Clinton said that half of Trump followers were deplorables and half are sympathetic victims of hard times. Her remarks were as follows:

You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? [Laughter/applause] The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people — now 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric. Now, some of those folks — they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America. But the other basket — and I know this because I see friends from all over America here — I see friends from Florida and Georgia and South Carolina and Texas — as well as, you know, New York and California — but that other basket of people are people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they’re just desperate for change. It doesn’t really even matter where it comes from. They don’t buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They won’t wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroin, feel like they’re in a dead end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well.

Her press secretary Nick Merrill later tweeted a reminder that she had given a speech denouncing the alt-right. He also suggested she was referring to half of his audience members, not half of his supporters. (“Obviously not everyone supporting Trump is part of the alt right, but alt right leaders are with Trump.”)

On Saturday, Clinton released a statement:

Last night I was “grossly generalistic,” and that’s never a good idea. I regret saying “half” — that was wrong. But let’s be clear, what’s really ‘deplorable’ is that Donald Trump hired a major advocate for the so-called ‘alt-right’ movement to run his campaign and that David Duke and other white supremacists see him as a champion of their values. It’s deplorable that Trump has built his campaign largely on prejudice and paranoia and given a national platform to hateful views and voices, including by retweeting fringe bigots with a few dozen followers and spreading their message to 11 million people. It’s deplorable that he’s attacked a federal judge for his “Mexican heritage,” bullied a Gold Star family because of their Muslim faith, and promoted the lie that our first black president is not a true American. So I won’t stop calling out bigotry and racist rhetoric in this campaign. I also meant what I said last night about empathy, and the very real challenges we face as a country where so many people have been left out and left behind. As I said, many of Trump’s supporters are hard-working Americans who just don’t feel like the economy or our political system are working for them. I’m determined to bring our country together and make our economy work for everyone, not just those at the top. Because we really are “stronger together.”

She never did any of the following:

Call all Trump supporters racists.

Fail to talk at length about the concerns of working people.

Apologize.

She did:

Say “half” was wrong.

Get the chance to restate many racists things Trump has said and his ties to the alt-right.

And yet the press managed to bungle. distort and out-and-out misrepresent the episode. Headlines and tweets announced she had called Trump supporters (without even mentioning “half”) racists. Nope. Other accounts left out entirely her remarks on the economically dislocated Americans for whom we should have empathy. There certainly is bias in many news outlets, but the problem here is either sloppiness, intentional hype to draw an audience or a severe reading comprehension issue. Then the media collectively seemed to decide this was a Clinton “gaffe.” It was nothing of the sort.

Let’s keep in mind that at various times polling has shown a third of Trump supporters oppose letting gays and lesbians into the country and approve of the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. In May, “The Public Policy Polling survey showed 59 percent of those who said they viewed the presumptive Republican presidential nominee favorably think [President] Obama was not born in the United States and only 13 percent believe he’s a Christian.” The birther nonsense — which Trump loudly and frequently embraced — certainly qualifies as a racist conspiracy designed to paint Obama as a foreigner and illegitimate.

Moreover, virtually 100 percent of his followers by now know of his raft of bigoted, misogynistic and cruel statements. They’ve heard his demeaning comments women and his characterization of Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and “murderers.” They nevertheless support him, raising three possibilities:

His supporters agree and truly are deplorable.

His supporters think this constitutes irreverent fun designed to freak out “politically correct” elites and don’t care if those demonized are hurt and demeaned with horrible stereotypes.

His supporters don’t like it but they condone it or rationalize it away to justify voting for him.

Her initial statement might not have been far off. If a voter agrees with Trump’s sexist, racist and ignorant rhetoric, it’s fair to characterize him as “deplorable.” If a voter thinks it is funny to mock the disabled or insult women or paint all African Americans’ lives as a “disaster,” sorry, that voter does not get a free pass. It is fair to conclude that such a voter, if not racist, is lacking decency and empathy. And if one condones, minimizes or rationalizes Trump’s drum beat of intolerance — as most elected Republicans have — well, such behavior in our book, is deplorable.

It is for this precise reason that #NeverTrump Republicans warned that Trump would permanently taint the GOP. It is time for Republicans to have the conversation about whether it is deplorable to support for president a racist and misogynist who shows no remorse. The right-wing echo chamber will be indignant, but the loudest voices — the same who cheered mass deportation — have no right to complain. When the GOP nominates a racist, it is to be expected that Republicans will be called racists.

From Clinton’s perspective, this is hardly a gaffe. It is more like a home run. If the story of the day or week involves debating whether 15 or 50 percent of Trump’s supporters are racists and reiterating his association with white nationalists, that is a win for Clinton. Those who find themselves in agreement with the same positions and loyalties as David Duke might want to reconsider their positions and loyalties.

Trump and running mate Mike Pence can save their crocodile tears and feigned outrage. Trump has spent over a year painting groups with a broad brush and swatting away critics as too “politically correct.” He does not like his followers being held guilty by association with him? Maybe he should consider abjectly apologizing for each of his outrageous smears, insults and stereotypes. If not, his apologists should be called out for defending a candidate who holds such noxious views. He can stomp his foot all he likes, but it is about time someone starting holding him and his defenders accountable. If they don’t like what they see in the mirror, it is not Clinton’s fault for calling attention to the ugly spectacle on the right.