Share

Hillary Clinton slams Trump supporters as ‘basket of deplorables’

Hillary Clinton has claimed that half the supporters of her presidential rival Donald Trump belong in a “basket of deplorables” of racists, homophobes, sexists, xenophobes, and Islamophobes.

Advertisement

Clinton was scheduled on Friday to meet with former senior national security officials in NY. “I regret saying ‘half” – that was wrong”, Clinton said in a Saturday afternoon statement.

In a statement announcing the ad Saturday, the campaign wrote, “As senator and as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton demonstrated her ability to work across the aisle to get things done”.

One day after announcing he would expand every aspect of our military, Trump took on another important issue – education – in OH, a state vital for Republicans hoping to call the White House home.

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

Speaking at a fundraiser in New York, Mrs Clinton called half of Donald Trump’s supporters a “basket of deplorables”. She has made similar comments recently, including on an Israeli television station.

Shifting to the other half of Trump supporters, Clinton said many of those people feel like the government doesn’t care about them and who just want change in any form.

But ‘Trump has built his campaign largely on prejudice and paranoia, ‘ she said, adding: ‘I won’t stop calling out bigotry and racist rhetoric in this campaign’.

But Clinton had no trouble directly calling out some of Trump’s supporters on Friday.

And Trump himself tweeted: “Wow, Hillary Clinton was SO INSULTING to my supporters, millions of wonderful, hard-working people”.

His campaign further argued that her comments “revealed just how little she thinks of the hard-working men and women of America”.

Donald Trump suggested he would fire generals and replace them with his own picks, praised Vladimir Putin and said America’s response to global terrorism should be to take the oil.

“He’s taking hate groups mainstream and helping a radical fringe take over the Republican Party”, Clinton said in Reno, Nevada. “And she wouldn’t be prosecuted”.

Clinton made the comment Friday night at the LGBT For Hillary Gala, at which Barbra Streisand and Rufus Wainwright performed. If you look at most presidents, including Obama and Bush, they both replaced generals with the people they wanted, Ellis said.

“Wow, Hillary Clinton was SO INSULTING to my supporters, millions of fantastic, hard working people”.

Clinton’s campaign spokesman Nick Merrill downplayed the former secretary of state’s remarks, tweeting that she was referring exclusively to “alt right” supporters. A campaign spokesperson emphasized how many “alt-right” leaders support Trump for president and that their message comes through at his rallies. Trump called the comments “so insulting”.

During the 2008 Democratic primary, then-Sen. “At the very least, if you know anybody who’s even thinking of voting for Trump, stage an intervention. And that’s not only risky, it should be disqualifying”, she said. But reporters travelling with her campaign were not allowed in and did not see the Democratic nominee.

Advertisement

In a series of tweets, Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill responded to criticism that emerged online in response to Clinton’s comments. She pretty much stood by everything else.

Hillary Clinton'To just be grossly generalistic you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket