Clinton ignites storm of controversy over her remarks

NEW YORK: Democratic presidential candidate Hill­ary Clinton ignited a storm of controversy over her remarks about Donald Trum­p’s supporters on Fri­day, saying that half of Trump’s supporters fall into “the basket of deplorables,” meaning people who are “racist, sexist, homophobic or xenophobic, Islamophopic.”

Speaking to a crowd of party supporters at a New York hotel in an effort to explain the support behind Trump, Clinton went on to describe the

some of Trump supporters as people who are looking for change in any form because of economic anxiety and urged her supporters to empathise with them.

“To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables,” Ms Clinton said. “Right? racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamap­hobic, you name it.”

She added, “And unfortunately, there are people like that and he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric.”

Clinton went on to say that some of these people were “irredeemable” and “not America.” Trump’s campaign quickly pounced on the remarks.

“One day after promising to be aspirational & uplifting, Hillary insults millions of Americans. #desperate,” campaign manager Kellya­nne Conway tweeted.

AP adds: The Republican presidential nominee quic­kly reacted to the remarks, saying she had smeared many Americans and would pay a heavy political price. “Wow, Hillary Clinton was SO INSULTING to my supporters, millions of amazing, hard-working people. I think it will cost her at the polls!” Trump said in a tweet.

Trump’s running mate Mike Pence jumped on the remarks Saturday at the conservative Value Voters Summit in Washington, saying “Hillary Clinton’s low opinion of the people that support this campaign sho­­­u­ld be denounced in the strongest possible terms. “ “Hillary, they are not a basket of anything. They are Americans and they dese­rve your respect,” he added.

Published in Dawn September 11th, 2016