The Republican National Committee held a press call addressing Hillary Clinton’s statement labeling millions of Americans as a “basket of deplorables.” On the call, the Trump campaign and supporters declared Clinton’s comment reveals she is as an “elitist” who “actually looks down on all of us.”
Speaking at a fundraiser in New York City on Friday night, Clinton declared, “You know to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables… the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.”
Her comments, which later became public, are facing backlash as #basketofdeplorables has been the top trending topic on Twitter for hours, forcing Clinton to issue a statement late Saturday afternoon, saying she regretted part of what she had said.
“I find it reprehensible, despicable, yet revealing that a former first lady, former secretary of state for this current administration would [call] hard-working, patriotic, American citizens a basket of deplorable,” Pastor Darrell Scott stated on the call, adding that “millions of Americans are insulted.”
“She’s really letting us see about how she really feels about those who don’t support her,” he added. “She actually looks down on all of us.”
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said Clinton got caught and that her statement is divisive. “This is something that divides, it doesn’t unite.”
“It is inconceivable to me that Hillary Clinton would have referred to her fellow citizens — people that support her opponent, people who are voters… that she would refer to them as deplorable or irredeemable,” Blackburn stated. “She has given us an insight into an elitist attitude and what the elites think about normal every day, hard-working Americans who are sick and tired of what is going on in this country and they are ready for change.”
Trump’s senior communications advisor Jason Miller also joined the press call, adding that Clinton’s “deplorable” comment reveals a real contrast between the two candidates.
“The clear contrast here, is that Mr. Trump is running to be president for all Americans — black, white, Latino, men, women, everybody — and what we saw from Hillary Clinton last night is what she truly thinks about Americans and her actions, her words are what is truly deplorable here,” Miller declared.
Trump also issued a statement, stressing that Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” statement reveals “bigotry and hatred for millions of Americans.”
“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? For the first time in a long while, her true feelings came out, showing bigotry and hatred for millions of Americans,” Trump stated in a press release Saturday afternoon. “How can she be President of our country when she has such contempt and disdain for so many great Americans? Hillary Clinton should be ashamed of herself, and this proves beyond a doubt that she is unfit and incapable to serve as President of the United States. I will be President for all of the people, and together we will Make America Great Again.”