U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton blasted her rival Donald Trump for appearing on a Russian state-run television network and praising Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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The difference this time was that she put a number on it.
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”. “Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic – you name it”.
Republicans instantly cried foul.
According to average ticket prices and attendance figures provided by the campaign, Clinton raised around $6 million at the fundraiser, only the sixth she has opened to press.
Mike Pence said Saturday at the Values Voters Summit in Washington that Clinton’s comments should be “denounced in the strongest possible terms”. Clinton said “I regret saying “half” – that was wrong”.
She said later that other Trump supporters are “people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they’re just desperate for change”. “I campaign all across this country for Donald Trump”.
One the one hand, both are very broad, extremely negative generalizations about large segments of the American public.
“I don’t know who hacked [the DNC]”.
Her remarks are backed by polls finding that significant numbers of Trump supporters hold such deplorable views.
He also accused Mrs Clinton of lacking the temperament to be commander in chief, telling supporters: “Personally, I think she’s an unstable person”.
“Hillary Clinton’s low opinion of the people that support this campaign should be denounced in the strongest possible terms”, Mike Pence, the governor of in and Trump’s running mate, said at the Values Voter Summit in Washington.
That, finally, drew applause and hoots of recognition, but it wasn’t clear how many people in the audience could tell what Pence was referring to. In 2012, GOP candidate Mitt Romney had called Russia, America’s “No. 1 geopolitical foe” and accused Mr. Obama of being soft towards it.
Almost 50 percent of Trump supporters surveyed said that they viewed blacks as more violent than whites, and 40 percent said that they considered them lazier.
Trump’s interview surfaced as he and Clinton continue to clash over foreign policy in the run-up to the November 8 presidential election.
Trump’s remark was reminiscent of a comment he made in January, when he said he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” but still not lose any support.
And she said his campaign was built “on stoking mistrust and pitting American against American”. There will certainly be plenty of chatter about this in the hours and days ahead.
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“If he says great things about me, I’m going to say great things about him”. But it’s at least along the lines of a narrative she’s been pushing. But reporters traveling with her campaign were not allowed in and did not see her.
