Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump released a new ad Monday attacking Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over her controversial “basket of deplorables” remark.
The former secretary of state on Saturday expressed regret for saying “half” of Trump’s supporters belonged in a “basket of deplorables” ― a group she said included “racists, sexists, homophobic, xenophobic, and Islamophobic” people.
“Last night I was ‘grossly generalistic,’ and that’s never a good idea,” Clinton said. “I regret saying ‘half’ ― that was wrong.” The Democrat maintained she was referring to the fringe racism and hatred that Trump had brought into the mainstream by hiring people like former Breitbart Executive Chairman Steve Bannon. Over the weekend, for example, Trump’s son Eric and an adviser to the businessman’s campaign both posted a popular white nationalist symbol to Twitter.
In the 30-second spot, audio of Clinton’s comments plays while images of Trump’s supporters from the GOP convention appear on screen ― pointedly black, Hispanic and Asian delegates.
“You know what’s deplorable? Hillary Clinton viciously demonizing hardworking people like you,” the narrator says.
The ad is slated to air in the battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida. Trump’s campaign did not disclose the amount of money it has spent behind it. The businessman currently trails Clinton in all four states, according to the HuffPost polling average.
In an interview on Fox News on Monday, Trump called Clinton’s remark the “biggest mistake of the political season,” and argued it was “much worse” than Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” remark about the electorate in 2012.
“When you are president, you are president of all the people. You are not president of 50 percent or 75 percent: You are president of all the people,” Trump said.
During a separate interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway piled on, criticizing Clinton for “sticking people into categories.”
“That is so personally offensive to me. I grew up with laborers ... Is it the people I saw at those fairs ― the deplorables?” she said. “I mean, sticking people in mass ― into categories is exactly what we shouldn’t do as Americans.”
Watch the Trump ad above.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.
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