During a spirted speech focused on the LGBT community, Clinton also made a joke that referenced conversion therapy, type of counseling created to urge gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender children to change their sexual orientation.
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“How can she be president of our country when she has such contempt and disdain for so many great Americans?” a Trump statement asked.
“But let’s be clear, what’s really “deplorable” is that Donald Trump hired a major advocate for the so-called “alt-right” movement to run his campaign and that David Duke and other white supremacists see him as a champion of their values”, said Mrs. Clinton.
Late Saturday, Hillary for America Chair John Podesta fired back at Trump, saying it’s “no surprise” he is defending “his most offensive views and extremist allies”.
“You know, just to be grossly generalist, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables”, Clinton said at the Friday fundraiser in New York City. “I regret saying “half” – that was wrong”, she said.
The “half” portion of the remark is precisely what riled people up so much. Trump said in a tweet. He said of Schlafly, “Phyllis was there for me when it was not at all fashionable”.
And Trump himself tweeted: “Wow, Hillary Clinton was SO INSULTING to my supporters, millions of incredible, hard working people. I regret saying “half” – that was wrong”, Clinton said in a statement, the day after comments at a fundraiser in NY.
At an LBGT fundraising event on Friday, Clinton discussed how she feared Trump’s proposed Supreme Court Justices “will overturn marriage equality”.
“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”, she said.
The Republican National Committee held a press call addressing Hillary Clinton’s statement labeling millions of Americans as a “basket of deplorables”. “She has given us an insight into an elitist attitude and what the elites think about normal every day, hard-working Americans who are sick and exhausted of what is going on in this country and they are ready for change”. “They say I have the most loyal people … where I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?”
Trump also issued a statement, stressing that Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” statement reveals “bigotry and hatred for millions of Americans”.
But Pence, who usually speaks without notes, couldn’t find the paper with Clinton’s exact comments.
But she then went on to list a number of “deplorable” things about Trump.
Trump, meanwhile, did not address Clinton’s comment at his only scheduled public appearance on Saturday, a funeral for social conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly.
Trump tweets that he’ll be in Missouri with his wife, Melania, for the funeral of “a wonderful and truly respected woman”.
The Republican presidential nominee earned a standing ovation before and after his brief remarks.
After living through eight years of “Divider-in-Chief” Barack Obama’s divisive “community organizing”, in which he pitted Americans against each other for political gain, many Americans considered her comments to be a breath of fresh air.
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Speaking at a LGBT fundraiser in New York, Ms Clinton said Mr Trump had given voice to hateful rhetoric through his behaviour as a candidate for the White House in the November 8 election. “Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic – you name it”.
