“Clinton’s comments provide yet another contrast between her and Donald Trump”.
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Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said Saturday she regretted calling half of Donald Trump’s supporters “deplorable”, but doubled down on slamming “racist rhetoric” in his campaign.
“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.
“And that’s never a good idea. I regret saying ‘half;’ that was wrong”, she said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Trump late Friday said that if Iranians circle US boats and “make gestures at our people that they shouldn’t be allowed to make, they will be shot out of the water”.
“Isn’t it disgraceful that Hillary Clinton makes the worst mistake of the political season and instead of owning up to this grotesque attack on American voters, she tries to turn it around with a pathetic rehash of the words and insults used in her failing campaign?” he said.
In a more surprising move, he also retweeted a 2012 tweet from Barack Obama, in which the then-campaigning president called for a “president who is fighting for all Americans”.
Mrs Clinton’s remarks at a fundraiser unleashed a fierce response from Republicans and Mr Trump’s supporters on social media and threatened to distract from her efforts to paint Mr Trump as unqualified for the presidency.
Clinton made her remarks at an LGBT fundraiser in NY late Friday.
Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence shot back on Saturday. “Unfortunately there are people like that. Now, some of those folks – they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America”. I will tell you right now, I campaign on a regular basis with Donald Trump.
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.
“She could walk into this arena right now and shoot somebody with 20,000 people watching, right smack in the middle of the heart and she wouldn’t be prosecuted”, he declared.
The remark was an attempt to explain Mr. Trump’s support, which has him running neck-and-neck with Mrs. Clinton in some recent polls.
The property tycoon and former Apprentice star was campaigning in Florida on the same day, where he said he would order an attack on Iranian boats if they harassed US Navy ships.
She told 1,000 lesbian, “gay”, bisexual and transgender donors in NY that half of Trump supporters hold hateful views that put them in a “basket of deplorables”, calling them “irredeemable”. Merrill argued that “alt-right” leaders are supporting Mr. Trump and “their supporters appear to make up half his crowd when you observe the tone of his events”.
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“It’s phony strength to not know what you’re talking about, and to make outrageous statements that will actually make our job harder, no matter how in the moment it sounds”, the former NY senator and Democratic presidential candidate told CNN in an interview aired Sunday, the 15th anniversary of the attacks on NY and Washington.
