U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton says half of the supporters of her Republican rival Donald Trump belong in a "basket of deplorables." Speaking Friday at an LGBT fundraiser in New York, Clinton described those supporters as racist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic - you name it."
Clinton said, "Unfortunately, there are people like that and he has lifted them up." The former secretary of state said some of those people were irredeemable and did not represent America.
The Democratic Party candidate then said the other half of the billionaire mogul's supporters were people who are desperate for change and feel abandoned by the government. "They don't buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different," Clinton said. "Those are people we have to understand and empathize with, as well."
Jason Miller, Trump's senior communications adviser, said in a statement that Clinton's remarks "revealed just how little she thinks of the hard-working men and women of America."
Singer Barbra Streisand performed at the LGBT fundraiser where she sang a parody to the tune of Send in the Clowns, transforming the lyrics to poke fun at the Republican presidential nominee.
"Is he that rich, maybe he's poor, 'til he reveals his (tax) returns, who can be sure?" the songstress sang to the adoring crowd. "Something's amiss, I don't approve, if he were running the free world, where would we move?"
Earlier Friday, the Clinton campaign got a $20 million boost from Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna.
Moskovitz said in a statement posted on medium.com that Trump and the Republican Party are "running on a zero-sum vision, stressing a false contest between their constituency and the rest of the world." In contrast, he said, Clinton and the Democrats are "running on a vision of optimism, pragmatism, inclusiveness and mutual benefit."
The donor said if Trump wins, the U.S. would "fall backward and become more isolated from the global community." He said that distinction "is starkly caricatured by his number one 'policy' position: the literal building of a wall between us and our neighbor." Trump has promised to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, if he wins the November election, to stem the flow on migrants into the U.S.
