Hillary Clinton urged supporters late Friday not to be complacent about Donald Trump’s chances of winning the election, saying half of his backers were “desperate for change” but the other half belonged in a “basket of deplorables”.
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Trump is calling Clinton’s comments a “grotesque attack” and questioning how she can be president when “she has such contempt and disdain for so many great Americans”. “Right?” Clinton said, per The Post’s Abby Phillip.
She reiterated that point in her statement Saturday, saying many of Trump’s supporters are “hard-working Americans” who feel marginalised.
Trump’s campaign attempted to capitalise on what it considered a major gaffe.
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.
She said she regrets only half of her statement, emphasizing that it is “really deplorable” that Trump is affiliated with people from the right-winged “alt-right movement”, and that “David Duke and other white supremacists see him as a champion of their values”.
Trump rebuked Clinton on Twitter, his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway called for Clinton to apologise, and his running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, chastised her in a speech Saturday.
She also expressed empathy for Trump supporters who are not racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, or Islomophobic.
Clinton made her remarks at an LGBT fundraiser in NY late Friday. My message to her is: Hillary, I got news for you.
Mr Trump was quick to slam Mrs Clinton on Twitter, writing: “Wow, Hillary Clinton was SO INSULTING to my supporters, millions of wonderful, hard working people”.
These are the activists, these are people [crucial to success] and that’s why I said at the end I hope everyone leaves here with a burden on their heart to use every hour, every day to make sure that Donald Trump is elected as the 45th president of the United States.
Indeed, some Republican strategists suggested that a campaign discussion of whether some of Trump’s supporters are racist – and, if so, how many – might be advantageous to Clinton.
Also Trump’s comments about the esteem of American military commanders can be interpreted as insulting to those leaders in uniform who have spent their life in service for the country, he said, referring to some of Trump’s comments Wednesday night that could be interpreted as insulting toward US military brass. So is the press going to cover this story in the right [context], or are they going to hold Hillary to a different standard again? “Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic – you name it”, she said, before stressing that other Trump supporters are frustrated and need sympathy. “Would you like me to sit there and say that Hillary Clinton is accountable for cop killings?”
“What’s truly deplorable isn’t just that Hillary Clinton made an inexcusable mistake in front of wealthy donors and reporters happened to be around to catch it, it’s that Clinton revealed just how little she thinks of the hard-working men and women of America”, Trump senior communications adviser Jason Miller said in a statement.
Mr Trump had responded by saying the comment was “insulting” to “millions of fantastic, hard working people”.
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The Democratic presidential candidate came under fire for remarks made at a NY fundraiser late Friday – remarks that unleashed a wave of derision and mockery on social media. “And their supporters appear to make up half his crowd, when you observe the tone of his events”. Supporters paid from $1,200 to more than $250,000 to attend.
