Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, speaking to wealthy donors at a fundraising event open to the press, said half of Donald Trump supporters are in “the basket of deplorables”, people who are racist, xenophobic, homophobic and misogynistic, a comment she later said she regretted.
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At a fundraiser on Friday, Hillary lashed out not just at Trump, but at his supporters – half of them, anyway.
In an RNC conference call for reporters on Saturday afternoon, congresswoman Marsha Blackburn and pastor Darrell Scott, a long-time Trump supporter, insisted that Clinton’s comment displayed her “elitism”. “Right?” Clinton said, per The Post’s Abby Phillip.
Clinton’s campaign pointed out late Friday that she has spoken at length about the “alt-right” movement and how its members are using Trump’s campaign to advance an agenda of hate.
Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway slammed Clinton on Twitter for “placing people in “baskets” and insulting “millions of Americans”.
Speaking at a LGBT fundraiser in New York, Clinton said Trump had given voice to hateful rhetoric through his behaviour as a candidate for the White House in the November 8 election.
Mrs Clinton’s remarks at a fundraiser unleashed a fierce response from Republicans and Mr Trump’s supporters on social media and threatened to distract from her efforts to paint Mr Trump as unqualified for the presidency.
He said that Trump supporters are “not a basket of anything”, adding, they are “members of every class of this country who know that we can make America great again”.
On Friday night, Clinton said that Trump has “given voice” to “irredeemable” individuals who engage in “offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric”.
He added that millions of Americans support the Republican nominee because, “they are sick of corrupt career politicians like Hillary Clinton”. “They are Americans and they deserve your respect”.
During a spirted speech focused on the LGBT community, Clinton also made a joke that referenced conversion therapy, type of counselling created to urge gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender children to change their sexual orientation.
“I won’t stop calling out bigotry and racist rhetoric in this campaign”, she went on, but she offered an olive branch of sorts to downscale Trump voters. “That may be one conversion therapy I’d endorse”, Clinton joked. Just remember: “friends don’t let friends vote for Trump”.
Trump seized on this part of Clinton’s comment, lighting into her on Twitter.
And she said his campaign was built “on stoking mistrust and pitting American against American”.
“Nick, it’s simply untrue”. It doesn’t really even matter where it comes from.
She also noted her comments about empathizing with other Trump supporters. By 9:30 a.m. EDT Saturday, the hashtag #BasketOfDeplorables produced 158,000 tweets since Clinton made the remarks.
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Romney, in comments unearthed from a closed-door fundraiser, cited 47 percent of people “who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it”.
