Trump and Clinton are set to attend the official commemoration Sunday in NY at the World Trade Center site.
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The former secretary of state was under fire after telling a NY fundraiser on Friday night: “To be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables”. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it”. “Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well”, she said. The day-and-night difference between the two speeches was similar to the careful remarks he made in Mexico City last month, and the way he let loose with a speech about cracking down on illegal immigration later that same night in Phoenix.
Clinton made her remarks about Trump’s supporters at a lavish event that featured performances from Barbra Streisand and Rufus Wainwright.
Some Clinton opponents even compared her comments to Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” gaffe, when the former Republican governor of MA helped sink his 2012 presidential campaign by saying almost half of Americans want to leech off the government.
If Trump continues to believe Obama is not a natural-born USA citizen, it would follow that he believes those who voted for Obama participated in an unconstitutional endeavor.
She issued a statement today expressing “regret” for the being “grossly generalistic”. Even as he was being panned for having a man-crush on Putin, Trump accused Clinton of selling out to Russian Federation, saying she gave up 20 per cent of U.S uranium to Russian Federation, and “You know what that means, right?” “I regret saying ‘half” – that was wrong”, Clinton said in a statement.
She reiterated that point in her statement Saturday, saying many of Trump’s supporters are “hard-working Americans” who feel marginalized.
And Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway tweeted, “One day after promising to be aspirational & uplifting, Hillary insults millions of Americans”.
His line about Clinton shooting someone was reminiscent of when he said in January ahead of the Iowa Caucuses in Sioux Center that he could “shoot somebody” and not lose support.
Hillary Clinton is walking back a comment she made about Trump supporters.
Clinton leads Trump in most national surveys on the presidential race, and is leading in many battleground states like Pennsylvania, polls show.
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”. He said of Schlafly, “Phyllis was there for me when it was not at all fashionable”.
“Hillary, they are not a basket of anything”.
Clinton, 68, also told the crowd at the “LGBT for Hillary” gala that other Trump supporters are people who feel let down by the government and the economy, and are “desperate for change”.
The Clinton campaign later sought to explain her “basket of deplorable” remark, saying she was referring to people who actively back him, such as donors, endorsers and people at his rallies, not everyone who plans to vote for him.
Clinton then pivoted and tried to characterize the other half of Trump’s supporters, putting them in “that other basket” and saying they need empathy. “They are Americans and they deserve your respect”, he added.
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Yet Trump has caught up to her level of support in several states.
