But Clinton, in a statement on Saturday, walked back the remarks, saying she regretted using the word “half” and seeking to refocus on what she described as episodes of “deplorable” behavior by Trump and his campaign. And it wasn’t a small number.
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‘[Y] ou can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables.
Clinton’s comment could help Trump, said Republican strategist Doug Heye. “Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic – you name it”, she said, before stressing that other Trump supporters are frustrated and need sympathy.
Republicans instantly cried foul.
Supporters of Donald Trump cheer during a rally in Pensacola, Florida.
“Hillary Clinton’s low opinion of the people that support this campaign should be denounced in the strongest possible terms”, said Mike Pence, the governor of in and Trump’s running mate, speaking at the Values Voter Summit in Washington.
Mrs Clinton later said she regretted calling the supporters “deplorables”, saying that many were hard-working Americans. And he has lifted them up.”Pence said he had not heard “that level of disdain for America” since then-Sen”.
However, she insisted that it was “really deplorable” that Trump was affiliated with certain far-right elements, with “David Duke and other white supremacists [seeing] him as a champion of their values”.
With Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson included, neither Clinton nor Trump eclipsed 45% in any of the four battleground states.
Throughout the interview, Pence compared Trump and Reagan, saying he believes they are similar leaders.
The dismissal of so significant a portion of the electorate immediately called to mind then-Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s captured-on-video comment in 2012 that 47% of the US electorate believed they were victims and were dependent on government entitlements and thus were guaranteed Obama voters.
Clinton’s labeling of “half” of Trump supporters resembles 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s comment that almost half – 47 percent – of the country’s population are “victims” that are “dependent upon government” and won’t vote for him. “I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives”. Trump said in a statement. No wonder Americans don’t trust her. The current average of polls by website RealClearPolitics puts her at 45.6 percent support, compared to Trump’s 42.8 percent.
Mrs Clinton accepted that she had been “grossly generalistic”.
Hillary Clinton thinks half of Donald Trump supporters are “deplorables”.
One key difference between the two is that Romney’s comment might have alienated potential supporters.
Clinton’s comments, in contrast, are clearly about people who were already voting for her opponent.
Clinton supporters are the most confident: 91 percent think she will do better than Trump.
Last week, the GOP candidate criticized Clinton for not providing specific policy details, even though she had released a 288 page book detailing her proposed policies that same day, according to NPR’s Tamara Keith. “I campaign all across this country for Donald Trump”.
“Vladimir Putin reigns with an iron fist”, one member of the group Bikers For Trump told BuzzFeed News. Same argument, all the way down to “grossly generalistic”.
Clinton made the comments before introducing Barbra Streisand at an LGBT fundraiser in downtown NY. His comments there didn’t feed into a broader point he was pushing about Obama supporters being moochers addicted to government largesse.
Slate, however, called equating Romney’s remark to Clinton’s absurd, pointing out that “Romney talked down and dismissed the importance of poor people while Clinton talked down to and dismissed racists, xenophobes, and homophobes”. There will certainly be plenty of chatter about this in the hours and days ahead.
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She added: “It suggests that he will let Putin do whatever Putin wants to do”. “If (Putin) says great things about me, I’m gonna say great things about him”.
