![\"hillary_rant\"](\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/hillary_rant.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWASHINGTON \u2013 Dropping in the polls and failing to perform up to expectations in her first major media test since the Democratic convention, Hillary Clinton tried a new approach to wooing support for her campaign for the presidency Friday by attacking, not Donald Trump, but rather his supporters.<\/p>\n
She told 1,000 lesbian, \u201cgay,\u201d bisexual and transgender donors in New York that half of Trump supporters hold hateful views that put them in a \u201cbasket of deplorables,\u201d calling them \u201cirredeemable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could put half of Trump\u2019s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right,\u201d Clinton said, drawing laughter and applause as she addressed about 1,000 donors at an LGBT for Hillary fundraising gala in New York City, \u201cThe racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic \u2013 you name it.\u201d Adding that Trump had \u201cgiven voice\u201d to many of those elements through his campaign rhetoric and retweets, she continued that, \u201csome of those folks \u2013 they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other half of Trump supporters, she said, fall into the category of alienated by economic instability and government dysfunction and are desperate for change, after eight years under the presidency of Democrat Barack Obama.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are the people we have to understand and empathize with as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The latest national polls show the election too close to call with Trump rising.<\/p>\n
His campaign called the comments part of the \u201cpolitics of division.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even some Democrats saw it as a mistake, given Trump commands the support of some 50 million voters.<\/p>\n
While most of the Clinton campaign has been devoted to creating negative views of Trump, this new turn focuses on his supporters, which is being questioned in such a tight race.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s campaign released a statement early Saturday accusing Clinton of dishonoring the \u201ceveryday Americans\u201d backing Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust 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,\u201d said Trump spokesman Jason Miller. \u201cAnd what\u2019s truly deplorable isn\u2019t just that Hillary Clinton made an inexcusable mistake in front of wealthy donors and reporters happened to be around to catch it, it\u2019s that Clinton revealed just how little she thinks of the hard-working men and women of America.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump himself took to Twitter Saturday saying: \u201cWow, Hillary Clinton was SO INSULTING to my supporters, millions of amazing, hard working people. I think it will cost her at the polls!\u201d<\/p>\n
Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill took to Twitter to perform danage control saying she was only referring to attendees at Trump rallies, not all of his supporters.<\/p>\n