“Last night I was “grossly generalistic, ‘ and that’s never a good idea”, the Democratic presidential nominee said in a statement Saturday”.
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“I certainly don’t think she helped herself”.
She listed a series of controversial moments from Trump’s campaign, including his fight with a Muslim Gold Star family, criticism of a federal U.S. judge of Mexican heritage and his insinuation that President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the US.
In her statement, Clinton said of Trump: “it’s deplorable that he’s attacked a federal judge for his ‘Mexican heritage, ‘ bullied a Gold Star family due to their Muslim faith, and promoted the lie that our first black president is not a true American”.
Friday night, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton called out that segment of Trump’s base during a fundraiser in New York City.
Clinton had made similar comments against Trump’s supporters in an interview on Thursday with an Israeli television station.
She reiterated that point in her statement Saturday, saying many of Trump s supporters are “hard-working Americans” who feel marginalized.
“They don’t buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different”, Clinton said.
“Wow, Hillary Clinton was SO INSULTING to my supporters, millions of incredible, hard-working people”.
She cited the example of the Yazidi people of northern Iraq where women and girls have been brutalized at the hands of the Islamic State. “How can she be President of our country when she has such contempt and disdain for so many great Americans?”
But Clinton had no trouble directly calling out some of Trump’s supporters on Friday. “And she wouldn’t be prosecuted”.
Clinton’s rhetorical stumble came as the candidates head into the final two months of the campaign, with Trump trying to make up ground before the November 8 election.
Less than 24 hours after she made the statement at a private New York City fundraiser. And unfortunately there are people like that and he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million. “He tweets and retweets offensive, hateful, mean- spirited rhetoric”.
“Tonight’s comments were more than another example of Clinton lying to the country about her emails, jeopardizing our national security, or even calling citizens “super-predators” – this was Clinton, as a defender of Washington’s rigged system, telling the American public that she could care less about them”, he said.
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.
Nick Merrill, Clinton’s campaign spokesman, wrote on Twitter that she was referring to the alt-right supporters.
But when they were widely reported, Trump and Republicans quickly pounced on the remarks, which drew comparisons to President Barack Obama’s comments about clinging to “guns and religion” at a 2008 campaign fundraiser and Mitt Romney’s “47 per cent” remark in 2012.
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Clinton apologized Saturday for being “grossly generalistic”.
