Trump condemns Clinton’s ‘deplorables’ label, latter regrets

Republican Donald Trump is condemning Hillary Clinton’s remark that half of his supporters could be put in a “basket of deplorables” and dismissing her admission she was wrong, saying the Democrat had committed “the worst mistake of the political season.” 

“For the first time in a long while, her true feelings came out, showing bigotry and hatred for millions of Americans,” Trump said on Saturday in a statement rejecting her effort to walk back her remarks. 

“How can she be president of our country when she has such contempt and disdain for so many great Americans?” 

Trump’s statement came after Clinton had backed off her disdainful description of half of his supporters. In her initial remarks Friday night at a private fundraiser in New York City, she said: “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, Islamaphobic you name it.” 

Her remarks drew enough controversy that by midday on Saturday she tried to refocus her criticism squarely on Trump and continued to stress that she thought many aspects of his campaign were deplorable. 

“Last night I was ‘grossly generalistic’ and that’s never a good idea. I regret saying ‘half’ that was wrong.” She added: “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.” 

In his response, Trump said: “Isn’t it disgraceful that Hillary Clinton makes the worst mistake of the political season and instead of owning up to this grotesque attack on American voters, she tries to turn it around with a pathetic rehash of the words and insults used in her failing campaign?”