The initial remarks were made during a star-studded fundraiser in downtown NY, which Barbra Streisand headlined.
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In a statement on Saturday, Ms Clinton apologised for having been “grossly generalistic”, explaining: “I regret saying “half” – that was wrong”. But she argued that the word “deplorable” was reasonable to describe much of Trump’s campaign.
Why would Hillary Clinton think we want more of the same from the last eight years?
“I don’t know what the exact percentage is, but there’s no doubt Donald Trump is drawing out the worst impulses of his supporters ranging from racism to the outrageous chants of ‘lock her up, ‘” said Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist. “Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic – you name it”, she said, before stressing that other Trump supporters are frustrated and need sympathy.
Trump seemed to skate by a half hour later as he repeated _ unchallenged _ the false claim that he was against the war, even though he voiced support for it in a 2002 interview.
Hillary Clinton says she regrets describing half of Donald Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables”. He wrote: “While Hillary said disgusting things about my supporters, and while many of her supporters will never vote for me, I still respect them all!”
Members of every class of this country who know that we can make America great again.
“You have to get out and vote on November 8”.
Trump tweeted and Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway demanded an apology from the Clinton campaign. She’s basically saying, ‘All you white folks, you’re either going to come with me or go with the alt-right.’ Well, if I have to make a choice, maybe I’ll go look at these alt-right people.
But Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill downplayed the former secretary of state’s comments, tweeting that she was referring exclusively to “alt right” supporters.
“With Iran, when they circle our lovely destroyers with their little boats and they make gestures at our people that they shouldn’t be allowed to make, they will be shot out of the water”, Trump told the crowd. “It’s like incredible”, he said. Clinton not only supports this extremely harmful law, she wants to take it further, making health care even more unaffordable than it now is. “And he has lifted them up”, she added. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people – now how 11 million.
The other basket of Trump’s supporters constituted individuals desperate for change who felt let down by the government and the economy, Mrs Clinton added.
Clinton’s comments were followed by a concert by singer Barbra Streisand, who performed a version of the Stephen Sondheim song “Send in the Clowns” that parodied Trump.
But after Friday night’s comments, Americans clearly saw that Clinton just went down the same road.
Clinton on Friday night broke Trump supporters down into two groups, one of which she called the “basket of deplorables”.
Clinton then noted how Trump has “given voice” to white supremacists and anti-Semites, by sharing their rhetoric on social media.
“Obviously not everyone supporting Trump is part of the alt right, but alt right leaders are with Trump”.
Clinton, a former USA senator representing NY, will attend the ceremony Sunday at Ground Zero. “She gave an entire speech about how the alt right movement is using his campaign to advance its hate movement”, Merrill wrote.
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But the moment recalled comments about voters – also at private fundraisers – that have tripped up presidential nominees in the past.
