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After taking heat, Clinton clarifies ‘basket of deplorables’ comment

On Friday, Clinton, who has said she is the candidate to unify a divided country, said Trump’s supporters were “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic”.

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Hillary Clinton grasped at straws while speaking at an LGBT event in Manhattan on Friday night, and wove them into clumsy metaphor that hurt the feelings of people who already hate her.

Speaking at an evening fundraiser in NY, the former U.S. secretary of state said Trump had given voice to hateful rhetoric from such individuals through his behaviour as a candidate for the White House.

Clinton made her remarks about Trump’s supporters at a lavish event that featured performances from Barbra Streisand and Rufus Wainwright.

As the Inquisitr reported last week, Trump has also been carving into Clinton’s lead over the past few weeks in a separate Reuters/Ipsos poll that focuses on favorability and support for each candidate.

Trump, who once boasted that he could shoot someone in the middle of New York’s Fifth Avenue and not lose any supporters, tried to turn the tables for that flub on Hillary Clinton, telling a raucous rally in Pensacola, Florida, that she could “shoot someone through the heart in front of 20,000 people and not be prosecuted”, because she is part of the elitist establishment and the system is rigged in her favor.

At the NY event with with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) supporters, she said that she grouped Mr. Trump’s sexist, racist and homophobic supporters in a “basket of deplorables”.

She said she regrets only half of her statement, emphasizing that it is “really deplorable” that Trump is affiliated with people from the right-winged “alt-right movement”, and that “David Duke and other white supremacists see him as a champion of their values”.

While Ms. Clinton is taking heat for her comment, Mr. Trump’s brand is controversy. “I think you’ve got both, and I think it’s frankly important to point out the kind of company you’re keeping if you’re going to back somebody like Donald Trump”.

Clinton’s comment could help Trump, said Republican strategist Doug Heye. But then we realize that it’s just Hillary Clinton giving another campaign speech ridiculing her opponent’s supporters in her “fingernails on the blackboard” tone of voice. “And he has lifted them up”. “If he doesn’t respect all Americans, how can he serve all Americans?” And considering her husband’s activities over the years, it’s pretty obvious that she’s been very accepting of at least Bill Clinton’s immoral choices and behavior.

The remarks have been harshly criticized by Republicans and Trump supporters.

Clinton, 68, had also told the crowd at the fundraiser that other Trump supporters are people who feel let down by the government and the economy, and are “desperate for change”.

Donald Trump says he’ll be in St. Louis later Saturday to attend the funeral of Phyllis Schlafly, the conservative activist who helped defeat the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and founded the Eagle Forum political group.

Pence piled on, saying at the Values Voter Summit that Clinton’s “low opinion” of Trump’s supporters should be “denounced in the strongest possible terms”.

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

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For the rest of Friday night in Florida, Trump mostly stayed on his standard messages, both those in line with traditional conservative values and his own lines: he’ll build the wall (Mexico will pay) and it wouldn’t be so bad to be friendly with Russian Federation.

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