“Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic – you name it”, she said, triggering an avalanche of reactions from rivals and talk radio callers.
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Clinton’s campaign also pointed out that she had already spent an hour and half at the event on a warm day, although it was relatively cooler than the week preceding when temperatures on the east coast were in the 90s.
Her remarks drew enough controversy that by midday Saturday she tried to refocus her criticism squarely on Trump and continued to stress that she thought many aspects of his campaign were deplorable.
But when walking back the remarks, Clinton also vowed to continue “calling out bigotry and racist rhetoric in this campaign” while emphasizing that she still wanted to be seen as a candidate of unity.
The statement was aimed at shutting down the negative reaction by the Trump campaign and preserving Clinton’s appeal to moderate Republicans and independents. In an interview with Israeli TV this week, Clinton said that Trump supporters are, “what I call the deplorables; you know, the racists and the, you know, the haters, and the people who are drawn because they think somehow he’s going to restore an America that no longer exists”.
“Let me just say from the bottom of my heart”.
Clinton, meanwhile, is urging people who like the sound of Donald Trump’s boasts about defeating the Islamic State group to consider the difference between “real strength” and “phony strength”.
Both the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates were set to attend a Sunday ceremony in NY marking the 15th anniversary of the deadly September 11 terror strikes, and neither nominee has scheduled campaign events for the day.
She added that those people are “irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America”. “I regret saying “half” – that was wrong”, she said in a statement released by her campaign.
Trump and his supporters quickly pounced on the remark, arguing that it revealed Clinton as disconnected from struggling Americans.
Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comments have drawn immediate comparisons to Mitt Romney’s 2012 line about 47% of Americans on government dole supporting Barack Obama and Mr Obama’s 2008 characterisation of downtrodden Pennsylvanians as clinging to guns and religion.
Trump, who made things even worse, is to blame, according to Clinton.
Trump told the crowd he believes that Clinton – under fire for using a private email server when she was secretary of state – is so immune from prosecution she could get away with murder.
“Right?” Clinton said to applause and laughter from supporters at the LGBT for Hillary fundraiser in NY.
In Arizona, Trump leads 42 per cent to 41 per cent. Clinton, however, leads among registered voters with 41 per cent to 40 per cent, Politico reported citing the poll. “How can she be president of our country when she has such contempt and disdain for so many great Americans?”, he said in a statement.
We’ll see if she just pushed it too far. Poll after poll has shown that majorities or pluralities of Republican voters support Trump’s proposed temporary ban on Muslims from entering the USA and mass deportations.
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Her trip has been canceled, but Politico reports her husband, former President Bill Clinton, could take her place on the fundraising swing.
