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Clinton dubs half of Trump’s supporters ‘deplorables’

The Democratic nominee said Trump “failed” a test by insulting generals during the forum while heaping praise on Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it”.

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Clinton’s comments drew a rebuke from Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, who said on Twitter that Clinton had insulted millions of Americans.

“He tweets and retweets their offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric”, Clinton said.

With her statement she’s saying that no, she doesn’t actually believe that around 20 percent of Americans are part of “a basket of deplorables”.

She said she was “grossly generalistic” in her remarks at the LGBT fundraiser in New York Friday and, she added, “that’s never a good idea”. “I regret saying ‘half” – that was wrong”.

During his speech Friday night in Pensacola, Trump strayed from prepared remarks to suggest that Clinton is so immune from prosecution she could get away with murder.

In an effort to explain the support behind Trump, Clinton went on to describe the rest of Trump supporters as people who are looking for change in any form because of economic anxiety and urged her supporters to empathize with them.

And throughout the day Saturday, Trump’s Republican allies jumped to his defense.

A spokesman for the Trump campaign, Jason Miller, said Clinton had “ripped off her mask and revealed her true contempt for everyday Americans”.

Those remarks were seized on by Clinton, his primary opponent, as evidence that he was disconnected from many Americans. “And (Trump) has lifted them up”.

Clinton and her top aides have sought to disqualify Trump’s ability to handle national security and military issues, questioning his temperament and qualifications. “He attacked dozens of former flag officers”, Clinton said. Even though such briefings are kept under wraps and the briefers are told to be very discreet, Trump claimed that, “In nearly every instance, and I could tell I’m pretty good with the body language I could tell, they were not happy”.

After realizing that saying “half”, (even after specifically saying she was over-generalizing) made a few too many people mad at her she conceded that perhaps she overstated the number.

Clinton, clinging to just over a one point lead over Trump in North Carolina, is looking to become only the second Democrat to win the battleground state since President Jimmy Carter, back in 1976.

“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”, she said in the statement.

Some critics likened Clinton’s observation to 2012 Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s “47 per cent” comment in which he said 47 per cent of voters are dependent upon the government and would vote for President Barack Obama no matter what.

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During the 2008 Democratic primary, then-Sen.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks to members of the media before boarding her campaign plane at Westchester County Airport in White Plains N.Y. Thursday Sept. 8 2016 to travel to Charlotte N.C. to attend a campaign rally. (AP