Clinton stressed that she has more military backing than rival Donald Trump, who touted endorsements from 88 retired USA generals and admirals earlier in the week.
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The Democratic presidential nominee also said she stood by her comments about “the very real challenges we face as a country where so many people have been left out and left behind”, including “many” Trump supporters, who she also referred to as “hard-working Americans” in her clarification.
A group of people backing the Republican nominee is “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic – you name it”, Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, said at a campaign fundraiser on Friday at Cipriani Wall Street, an upscale Italian restaurant in NY.
The Washington Post reported that “there is strong evidence that Trump’s businesses have received significant funding from Russian investors” and his son, Donald Jr., has boasted that Russian money “make [s] up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets”.
Meanwhile, the head of the Republican National Committee is describing Clinton’s description of Donald Trump supporters as “insulting”.
“I think it’s probably unlikely”.
If you don’t kneecap Donald Trump in a big one-on-one event, don’t turn the conversation into the journalism version of the gory chariot scene in “Gladiator, ‘ then prepare to be shamed before being burned at the stake”. Clinton, a self-proclaimed wonk, is comfortable discussing policy but has at times struggled to make voters feel she shares their priorities. He said he had not been contacted by Trump or his campaign since the kerfuffle broke out.
Trump also sought on Friday to blame Clinton after reports that North Korea had tested a nuclear weapon, arguing it was the fourth such test since the Democrat became secretary of state in 2009 and that she should have ended the nation’s nuclear programme before her tenure ended. “And she wouldn’t be prosecuted”. “Those are people who we have to understand and empathize with as well”. “It’s like incredible”, he said. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million.
Clinton added: “He tweets and retweets their offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric”.
Clinton then pivoted and tried to characterize the other half of Trump’s supporters, putting them in “that other basket” and saying they need understanding and empathy.
It could prove a stumble for a seasoned – and polarizing – politician who wants to lead a country that includes many who have embraced Trump’s exhortations to “lock her up”.
Shifting to the other half of Trump supporters, Clinton said many of those people feel like the government doesn’t care about them and who just want change in any form.
Jason Miller, a Trump spokesman, said in a statement that Clinton “ripped off her mask and revealed her true contempt for everyday Americans”. “I’ve called so numerous shots”.
Clinton held a news conference after convening her bipartisan national security advisers today in New York City, at the end of which, as she walked away, a reporter shouted a question as to whether she had a comment about Trump “accidentally” appearing on Russian TV.
She recalled visiting congregations across the country, from Cedar Rapids to Montgomery, and learning about their public service, like a church in Philadelphia that built a supermarket “in a neighborhood that hadn’t seen one in more than 10 years”.
Comments about voters – especially at private fundraisers – have tripped up presidential hopefuls in the past.
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Clinton’s remarks were quickly compared to Mitt Romney’s infamous “47-percent” gaffe from his 2012 campaign, when he was secretly recorded during a fundraiser saying almost half of Americans “depend on the government” and will vote for Obama.
