Hillary Clinton's claim at a fundraiser that half of Donald Trump's supporters fit into a "basket of deplorables" prompted a swift and negative reaction from Republicans, including denunciations and calls for her to apologise.
The comments echoed an accusation that Clinton had levied previously - that Trump appeals to and amplifies racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic viewpoints. But Clinton triggered a fresh controversy by claiming that "half" of Trump's supporters fit that description.
At a key moment in the campaign, when both candidates are trying to sharpen their focus for the final, post-Labour Day sprint, Clinton's remarks took attention from Trump's spate of gaffes last week and also from her own effort to turn the public's attention to her qualifications for office and vision for the nation.
"You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the 'basket of deplorables'. Right?" Clinton said to applause and laughter from supporters at the LGBT for Hillary fundraiser in New York. "The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic - you name it." She 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. Now, some of those folks - they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America." Condemnation came swiftly from Trump's allies and from the candidate himself, who on Twitter called the remarks "so insulting" and predicted that Clinton would pay a price in the polls.
In a statement issued later, Trump said that Clinton's "true feelings" had come out. "How can she be President of our country when she has such contempt and disdain for so many great Americans?" Trump said. "Hillary Clinton should be ashamed of herself." Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, called for Clinton to apologise, something that Trump himself has never done in the face of controversy. Indiana Governor Mike Pence, Trump's running-mate, also weighed in, comparing Clinton's remarks to President Barack Obama's controversial 2008 comments about people who "cling to guns or religion". Others compared the remark to 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney's infamous "47 per cent" comment. The Trump campaign sought to use the comparison to further define Clinton.