Trump Blasts Clinton’s Labeling His Backers ‘A Basket of Deplorables’

“For the first time in a long while, her true feelings came out, showing bigotry and hatred for millions of Americans”, he added in a statement, calling Clinton “unfit” to be president.

In a statement Saturday, Clinton said that, “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”. “And he has lifted them up”.

“The white supremacists who go out and say that they are supporting Donald Trump, they’re deplorable”, Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) said on Fox.

Clinton made her comments at an LGBT fundraiser in NY late Friday, adding that Trump supporters are “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic – you name it”.

“He 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”, Mrs Clinton said.

But Trump’s vice presidential running mate Mike Pence said she had disrespected voters. “This is without a doubt deplorable – but this is who he is”, Podesta said in a statement. Mr Trump said in a tweet. Clinton played into the perception among GOP and independent voters that Democratic Party leaders are hateful and smug, a clutch of coastal elitists so dismissive of middle America that they wonder what’s the matter with Kansas, rather than work to reconnect with Topeka. “I won’t stop calling out bigotry and racist rhetoric in this campaign”, Clinton said. With her statement she’s saying that no, she doesn’t actually believe that around 20 percent of Americans are part of “a basket of deplorables”.

But Trump on Saturday sought to use Clinton’s comments to make the same charge about her.

Generalizing is nearly always a mistake for leaders, and the savvy ones don’t intentionally unleash gross generalizations.

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.

More than six in ten voters also said that neither candidate is honest or trustworthy, the Post noted, adding that majorities question Clinton’s ethics while she served as secretary of State.

“If I were to be grossly generalistic, I would say you can take Trump supporters and put them in two big baskets”, Clinton said. She has made similar comments recently, including on an Israeli television station.

Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said in a series of tweets after the remarks that Mrs Clinton has been talking about the “alternative right”, or “alt-right” movement, which often is associated with efforts on the far right to preserve “white identity”, oppose multiculturalism and defend “Western values”. “And their supporters appear to make up half his crowd, when you observe the tone of his events”.

Donald Trump is expected to visit the Ground Zero memorial in New York on Sunday to mark the 15th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, a campaign source and a New York City official told CNN.

Comments about voters – especially at private fundraisers – have tripped up presidential hopefuls in the past. But when they were widely reported, Trump and Republicans quickly pounced on the remarks, which drew comparisons to President Barack Obama’s comments about clinging to “guns and religion” at a 2008 campaign fundraiser and Mitt Romney’s “47 per cent” remark in 2012. But reporters travelling with her campaign were not allowed in and did not see the Democratic nominee.