Breaking: Clinton Regrets Saying ‘Half’ of Trump Supporters Are ‘Basket of Deplorables’

Democratic Nominee Called Out Trump Supporters Who Are ‘Racist, Sexist, Homophobic, Xenophobic, Islamaphobic’

Hillary Clinton Saturday afternoon said she regrets calling half of Donald Trump’s supporters a “basket of deplorables,” noting many are hard-working Americans. But the Democratic nominee did not back down from the criticism that white supremacists have flocked to Trump, and added that the Republican presidential nominee hired Steve Bannon to head his campaign. Bannon is the former publisher of the far right wing site Breitbart, which he proudly proclaimed is the home of the alt-right movement. 

“Last night I was ‘grossly generalistic,’ and that’s never a good idea,” Clinton said in a statement. “I regret saying ‘half’ — that was wrong.”

“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,” Clinton said, referring to Bannon.

“It’s deplorable that Trump has built his campaign largely on prejudice and paranoia and given a national platform to hateful views and voices, including by retweeting fringe bigots with a few dozen followers and spreading their message to 11 million people. It’s deplorable that he’s attacked a federal judge for his ‘Mexican heritage,’ bullied a Gold Star family because of their Muslim faith, and promoted the lie that our first black president is not a true American.”

“So I won’t stop calling out bigotry and racist rhetoric in this campaign. I also meant what I said last night about empathy, and the very real challenges we face as a country where so many people have been left out and left behind. As I said, many of Trump’s supporters are hard-working Americans who just don’t feel like the economy or our political system are working for them. I’m determined to bring our country together and make our economy work for everyone, not just those at the top. Because we really are ‘stronger together.’”

Clinton, at a Friday night fundraiser, had said:

“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the ‘basket of deplorables’. Right?”

“The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it,” Clinton made clear. “And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.” 

She also expressed empathy for Trump supporters who are not racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, or Islomophobic.

“That other basket of people 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,” Clinton continued. “It doesn’t really even matter where it comes from. They don’t buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different.”

UPDATE:
RNC Spokesman Refers to ‘Deplorables’ as ‘Deportables’ in Hilarious Typo

 

Image: Screenshot via YouTube