Hillary Clinton Regrets 'Basket of Deplorables' Comment Directed at Half of Trump Supporters

Update: Hillary Clinton has issued the following statement after facing criticism from the Trump campaign over her remark where she called half of his supporters a "basket of deplorables." In her statement, Clinton said she was grossly generalistic and regrets saying "half."

“Last night I was ‘grossly generalistic,’ and that's never a good idea. I regret saying ‘half’ -- that was wrong. But let's be clear, what's really ‘deplorable’ is that Donald Trump hired a major advocate for the so-called ‘alt-right’ movement to run his campaign and that David Duke and other white supremacists see him as a champion of their values. It's deplorable that Trump has built his campaign largely on prejudice and paranoia and given a national platform to hateful views and voices, including by retweeting fringe bigots with a few dozen followers and spreading their message to 11 million people. It's deplorable that he's attacked a federal judge for his ‘Mexican heritage,’ bullied a Gold Star family because of their Muslim faith, and promoted the lie that our first black president is not a true American. So I won't stop calling out bigotry and racist rhetoric in this campaign. I also meant what I said last night about empathy, and the very real challenges we face as a country where so many people have been left out and left behind. As I said, 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. I'm determined to bring our country together and make our economy work for everyone, not just those at the top. Because we really are ‘stronger together."

The Trump campaign is slamming Hillary Clinton after she referred to some of Donald Trump's supporters as a "basket of deplorables," saying that she has shown a contempt for everyday Americans while the Clinton campaign has said she was referring only to members of the alt-right who support Trump.

Clinton made the remarks at the LGBT For Hillary Gala at the glitzy Cipriani Wall Street restaurant. Some of the celebrities in attendance included Barbra Streisand, designers Isaac Mizrahi, Donna Karan, Diane von Furstenberg and "Sex and the City" star Cynthia Nixon.

Trump took to Twitter Saturday morning to blast the Democratic nominee for president, saying she was "so insulting" to his supporters.

His son, Donald Trump Jr., also took to Twitter and criticized Clinton's comments in a series of tweets.

"You know to just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the 'basket of deplorables.' Right?" Clinton said at the event. "The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, 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."

Clinton added that Trump's other supporters are people who feel they have been let down by the government and are desperate for change.

“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," Jason Miller, senior communications advisor for the Trump campaign said in a statement issued Friday. "Tonight’s comments were more than another example of Clinton lying to the country about her emails, jeopardizing our national security, or even calling citizens ‘super-predators’ – this was Clinton, as a defender of Washington’s rigged system – telling the American public that she could care less about them.

"And what’s truly deplorable isn’t just that Hillary Clinton made an inexcusable mistake in front of wealthy donors and reporters happened to be around to catch it, it’s that Clinton revealed just how little she thinks of the hard-working men and women of America.”

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway repeatedly wrote on Twitter that Clinton should apologize for the remark.

Trump's other son, Eric Trump, also tried to blast the candidate, but failed.

Nick Merrill, Clinton's campaign spokesman, wrote on Twitter that she was only referring to the alt-right supporters.

The alt-right is a racist, anti-semitic white power group. According to the Southern Poverty Law center, the group has worked hard to affix the alt-right brand to Trump.

Image Credit: Alexander Nguyen/Patch