Donald Trump releases TV ad hitting Hillary Clinton on "deplorables" remark
Donald Trump’s campaign on Monday released a TV ad highlighting Hillary Clinton’s comment from Friday in which she said you could put half of Donald Trump’s supporters into “the basket of deplorables,” CBS News’ Major Garrett reports.
The 30-second ad, which is estimated to cost $2 million, starts with a voiceover: “Speaking to wealthy donors, Hillary Clinton called tens of millions of Americans “deplorable.”
The Democratic presidential nominee made the comment at an LGBT fundraiser on Friday.
The ad continues with a clip of Clinton saying, “You could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the ‘basket of deplorables.’ The racists, sexists, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.”
“You know what’s deplorable?” the voiceover says. “Hillary Clinton viciously demonizing hard-working people like you.”
The campaign said it’s targeting Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida -- all key battleground states.
Republicans have gone on the attack after Clinton’s remark. Though she said on Saturday that she regretted the comment, Clinton still stuck with the accusation that Trump has “given a national platform to hateful views and voices.”
In response to the original statement, Trump tweeted, “While many of her supporters will never vote for me, I still respect them all!”
This comes as Trump and Clinton are virtually tied in the battleground states of Arizona, Florida, Nevada and New Hampshire.