Hillary Clinton is walking back a comment she made about Trump supporters.
At an LBGT fundraising event on Friday, Clinton discussed how she feared Trump’s proposed Supreme Court Justices “will overturn marriage equality.” But a few minutes later, she made a quote that caused backlash among Trump supporters:
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, Islamaphobic—you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up.
#BasketofDeplorables started trending on Twitter shortly after the Trump campaign caught wind of the comments and issued a statement decrying them.
https://twitter.com/OpinionMKE/status/774702428251971584
Look at the #BasketOfDeplorables in Pensacola Florida last night! What a horrible statement. #CrookedHillary pic.twitter.com/GfevT0KUjd
— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) September 10, 2016
Hillary shows contempt for people in her “basket”. I think she blew a gasket. Her campaign headed for a casket.
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) September 10, 2016
Prominent Republicans disavowed Clinton’s language while others, including Trump advisor Roger Stone, embraced it.
.@HillaryClinton called millions of Americans a ‘basket of deplorables.’ They are Americans, and they deserve your respect. #VVS16
— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) September 10, 2016
Hillary Clinton should be ashamed of her comments.
— Paul Ryan (@PRyan) September 10, 2016
I am so proud to be one of the Deplorables #Trump2016 pic.twitter.com/IFD1hfC60w
— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) September 10, 2016
According to CNN, Clinton made a statement on Saturday expressing regret at calling “half” of Trump’s supporters deplorable.
“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,” she said. But she won’t stop bringing attention to “calling out bigotry and racist rhetoric in this campaign.”
