Hillary Clinton is under fire for describing half of Donald Trump's supports as "deplorable"--"racist, sexist, xenophobic and Islamaphobic," apparently writing off any chance that they may vote for her. 
Her remarks at a fundraiser in New York on Friday night are being compared to comments secretly recorded during a 2012 Mitt Romney fundraiser in which he described 47% of Americans as lazy and dependent on government. 
Those remarks are believed to have fatally damaged Romney's chances to defeat Barack Obama in the 2012 election. 
Instead, Clinton spoke at a rare fundraiser opened to the press. Just six of over 300 of such gatherings have been public, the rest behind closed doors. 
"To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables," Clinton said. "Right? Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that and he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric." She said these people were "irredeemable" and "not America."  The other half of Trump supporters were hurting economically, Clinton said, and they deserved empathy. In her speech, she did not outline policies that would help them, however. 
"That other basket of people are people who feel that government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures," she said. "They are just desperate for change. Doesn't really even matter where it comes from." Trump has blasted free trade deals that have shipped American jobs overseas, devastating America's middle and working classes. The issue has perhaps been his most important to gather mass appeal. 
The Trump campaign blasted Clinton for her disparaging remarks. "One day after promising to be aspirational & uplifting, Hillary insults millions of Americans. #desperate," campaign manager Kellyanne Conway tweeted. 
Jason Miller, a Trump spokesman, said in a statement that Clinton "ripped off her mask and revealed her true contempt for everyday Americans."

Source : QNA