Hillary Clinton greets actress Laverne Cox during the LGBT for Hillary Gala at Cipriani Club on September 9, 2016 in New York City.
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Hillary Clinton has said she regrets describing “half” of Donald Trump’s supporters as “deplorable”, but vowed that she would keep “calling out bigotry and racist rhetoric” when she encounters it from her presidential rival and his followers.
People were utterly shocked that Clinton would refer to a large group of “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic” people as deplorable for some reason. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people – now how 11 million. Trump tweeted Saturday morning. They are, Pence said, “hard-working Americans: Farms, coal miners, teachers, veterans, members of our law enforcement community”.
He told a crowded rally in Pensacola that if Iran’s “little boats” circled America’s “beautiful destroyers” during his presidency, “they will be shot out of the water”.
Trump, who in 2015 said of the Russian president “I think in terms of leadership, he’s getting an A”, retaliated.
The remarks have been harshly criticized by Republicans and Trump supporters.
In a statement issued later Saturday, Trump said that Clinton’s “true feelings” had come out.
“Last night I was ‘grossly generalistic, ‘ and that’s never a good idea”.
She then lambasted Trump for hiring a leader of the so-called alt-right movement to run his campaign, and offered a list of Trump’s offensive remarks about Latinos and African Americans.
This is a developing story. “Let me just say, no one with her record of failure at home and overseas, no with her avalanche of dishonesty and corruption, and no one with that low opinion of the American people should ever be elected president”. The only difference? She didn’t say “half”.
The comments the night before echoed an accusation that Clinton had levied previously – that Trump appeals to and amplifies racist, xenophobic, and anti-Semitic viewpoints. (There likely would have been no controversy at all had she simply said that “a portion” did). “As long as Trump stays out of the way and doesn’t overshadow Hillary’s comment, her “basket of deplorables” comment should dominate the media in the coming days and runs the risk of negatively defining her campaign”, said Republican strategist Doug Heye.
Clinton then pivoted and tried to characterized the other half of Trump’s supporters, putting them in “that other basket” and saying they need understanding and empathy.
Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, demanded Clinton apologize.
Donald Trump says that Hillary Clinton’s remarks calling half of his supporters a “basket of deplorables” is “the worst mistake of the political season”.
These Trump supporters, Clinton added, “don’t buy everything he says”, but “hold out some hope that their lives will be different” with him as president.
Still, those polling shifts at least partly explain Clinton’s unusually strong assessment of some Trump supporters as part of an effort to let her potential voter base know what’s at stake, especially now that Trump has tapped into what she called some of America’s “irredeemable” impulses. “Those are people we have to understand and empathise with as well”. She has made similar comments recently, including on an Israeli television station.
Romney later told reporters the comments were “not elegantly stated”.
Of course, Obama won that election (and the primary campaign against Clinton), so saying these comments will hurt Clinton similarly seems a bit … not in conjunction with what actually happened. Clinton wants to end the practice.
The flap also comes as polls show Trump narrowing Clinton’s lead nationally and in battleground states.
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He also accused Mrs Clinton of lacking the temperament to be commander in chief, telling supporters: “Personally, I think she’s an unstable person”.
