Hillary Clinton says she regrets calling 'half' of Donald Trump's supporters 'deplorable'

But the Democratic nominee insisted she would keep 'calling out bigotry and racist rhetoric' from her presidential rival

Clinton made the comments at the LGBT for Hillary Gala in New York on Friday, where Barbra Streisand also performed ((Getty Images))

Hillary Clinton has said she regrets describing “half” of Donald Trump’s supporters as “deplorable”, but vowed that she would keep “calling out bigotry and racist rhetoric” when she encounters it from her presidential rival and his followers.

The Democratic nominee had faced a backlash from Republicans following her comments at a fundraising event in New York on Friday, where she said, “to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the ‘basket of deplorables.’”

The remarks were met with laughter from the crowd at the LGBT for Hillary Gala, where Ms Clinton went on to describe said “deplorables” as “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic... unfortunately there are people like that. And [Trump] has lifted them up.”

Mr Trump hit back on Twitter, describing the former Secretary of State’s comments as “so insulting” to his supporters, whom he characterised as “millions of amazing, hard-working people.” The property mogul’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway also weighed in, accusing Ms Clinton of “slandering” her candidate’s fans.

During her Friday speech, Ms Clinton had also spoken about the “other basket” of Trump supporters, saying many were “people who feel that the 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, and they’re just desperate for change.”

In a statement on Saturday, Ms Clinton apologised for having been “grossly generalistic,” explaining: “I regret saying ‘half’ – that was wrong.” However, she stood by her claim that Mr Trump had enthused the so-called “alt-right movement”, noting that “[former Ku Klux Klan leader] David Duke and other white supremacists see him as a champion of their values.”

She accused Mr Trump of having “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."