Hillary Clinton regrets calling half of Trump supporters “deplorables”

Hillary Clinton expressed “regret” Saturday for comments in which she said “half” of her Republican rival Donald Trump’s supporters are “deplorables,” meaning people who are racist, sexist, homophobic or xenophobic.

“Last night I was ‘grossly generalistic,’ and that’s never a good idea,” she said in a statement as observers of the White House race called it a political gaffe.

“I regret saying ‘half’ — that was wrong,” the Democratic candidate added after her rival Trump reacted intensely to the description.

Trump’s supporters numbered 13.3 million in the Republican primaries, leading to his nomination for the office of the president of the United States.

Clinton went on to say that “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.” Still, Clinton said she won’t stop “calling out bigotry and racist rhetoric in this campaign.”

She had been speaking at an LGBT event in New York on Friday when she made the comment.

“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?” she told the crowd, which reacted with laughter and applause. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that.

“And he has lifted them up,” Clinton continued. “He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people — now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric.”

The remarks sent the Trump camp into full-blooded attack against the former top American diplomat, with the Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller quickly issuing a statement saying Clinton’s comments are what’s deplorable.

“Just when Hillary Clinton said she was going to start running a positive campaign, she ripped off her mask and revealed her true contempt for everyday Americans,” he said.

Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, who spoke at a conservative Value Voters Summit in Washington, D.C., Saturday, also took issue with Clinton saying millions fall into the deplorable basket.

“They are Americans, and they deserve your respect,” he tweeted. “No one with that low of an opinion of the American people should ever be elected to the highest office in the land.”

On the other hand, Clinton’s campaign said late Friday that she has spoken at length about the “alt-right” movement and how its members are using Trump’s campaign to advance an agenda of hate.

“Obviously not everyone supporting Trump is part of the alt right, but alt right leaders are with Trump,” Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill tweeted. “And their supporters appear to make up half his crowd when you observe the tone of his events.”

But #BasketOfDeplorables quickly splashed on the Twitter on Saturday — and the campaign, resulting in Clinton’s mea culpa moment, after back and forth comments between the two sides.

According to some latest polls, Clinton and Trump are almost evenly rated among voters. Others give Clinton a slim lead over the GOP candidate. Next few days will tell how far Clinton’s remark impacts the unusually intense political season.