Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she feels sympathy for Donald Trump supporters who are taken in by the New Yorker, but warned voters that she thinks his message is offensive.
“I am sympathetic to a lot of the people attracted by Trump’s message, who are feeling really left out and left behind,” she said during a YouTube Creators summit in Los Angeles, California on Tuesday.
She asserted that many Trump supporters had lost their faith — in the government, in politics, and in the economic system and were losing hope in the future of their country.
“I’m not only sympathetic, I’m looking for solutions,” she said.
Some Trump supporters, she argued, were “frustrated” and “fearful” and therefore susceptible to what she described as Trump’s “misleading promises.”
But she accused many Trump supporters of falling prey to his controversial message.
“I’m not sympathetic to the xenophobia, the misogyny, the homophobia, the Islamophobia, and all of the other sort of dog whistles that Trump uses to create that fervor among a lot of his supporters,” she said.
Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, she argued, was “code for ‘Go back to the time when a lot of people were not included, including women, including African Americans, Latinos, and a lot of other people.’”
She also criticized Trump’s “veiled appeal” to supporters by inciting violence.
“That has to be rejected, that’s contrary to our values,” she said.