Clinton said half of Trump’s supporters appeared to be racist, homophobic, sexist, xenophobic, or Islamophobic.
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But Clinton had no trouble directly calling out some of Trump’s supporters on Friday. Trump took to Twitter to voice outrage, and his campaign manager called on Clinton to apologize.
“They say awful things about me, much worse than anything I’ve ever said about them”, Clinton told Klein.
Trump spoke at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis Saturday, where he said that Schlafly is looking down on those gathered, telling them to “keep up the fight”.
Clinton expressed regret only for generalizing that this group amounted to “half” of Trump’s supporters, which equates to millions of Americans.
On Thursday, Clinton slammed Trump for kicking off his political career by questioning whether President Barack Obama was actually born in the United States.
Trump’s remark was reminiscent of a comment he made in January, when he said he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” but still not lose any support.
“Hillary, they are not a basket of anything”. They are, Pence said, “hard-working Americans: Farms, coal miners, teachers, veterans, members of our law enforcement community”.
Clinton was referring to Trump’s campaign CEO Steve Bannon, formerly the chairman of Breitbart News.
She encouraged supporters to “stage an intervention” if they have friends considering voting for the Republican nominee.
Head of the Republican National Committee Reince Priebus said that Clinton has demonstrated “her outright contempt for ordinary people”. He repeatedly criticized the decision not to prosecute her over her email scandal, and also her record as secretary of state. “I regret saying ‘half” – that was wrong”. “It’s like incredible”, he said.
“She said, “Look, I’m generalizing here, but a lot of his support is coming from this odd place, that he’s given a platform to the alt-right and white nationalists, ‘” Kaine said in an interview with the Washington Post”. “And (Trump) has lifted them up”. “Millions of incredible, hard-working people”.
Trump tweeted that Clinton’s words would harm her standing in the election, and said in a statement that if he is elected president he would represent all Americans.
She added: “Now some of those folks, they are irredeemable”.
Even despite the apology her comments could prove a stumble for a seasoned – and polarising – politician who wants to lead a country that includes many who have embraced Trump’s exhortations to “lock her up”. She has made similar comments recently, including on an Israeli television station.
“As I said”, she added, “many of Trump’s supporters are hard-working Americans who just don’t feel like the economy or our political system are working for them”. Perhaps only 40% of Trump’s supporters are bigots.
Admitting later that she’d been “grossly generalistic”, Clinton released a statement apologising, but went on to attack Trump.
His campaign called the comments part of the “politics of division”.
We’ll see if she just pushed it too far.
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Comments about voters – also at private fundraisers – have tripped up presidential nominees in the past.
