Trump hits back over ‘deplorables’ slur
but “Wow, Hillary Clinton was so insulting to my supporters, millions of amazing, hard-working people. I think it will cost her at the polls!”
Mike Pence, Mr Trump’s running mate, went further. “Hillary Clinton’s low opinion of the people that support this campaign should be denounced in the strongest possible terms.
“The truth of the matter is the men and women that support Donald Trump’s campaign are hard-working Americans – farmers, coal miners, night saying that she had been wrong to say “half ” of Mr Trump’s supporters were deplorable, but insisted his campaign had embraced the so-called “altRight” – a movement associated with white supremacism.
“It’s deplorable that Trump has built his campaign largely on prejudice and paranoia and given a national platform to hateful views and voices,” she said, adding that she would continue “calling out” her rival’s alleged “bigotry and racist rhetoric”.
In a statement of his own, Mr Trump said that Mrs Clinton should be “ashamed” of herself.
“Isn’t it disgraceful that Hillary Clinton makes the worst mistake of the political season and instead of owning up to this grotesque attack on American voters, she tries to turn it around with a pathetic rehash of the word and insults used in her failing campaign?” he asked.
“How can she be president of our country when she has such contempt and disdain for so many great Americans?”
Mr Pence compared Mrs Clinton’s remarks to Barack Obama’s quip at a 2008 fundraiser that some Americans left behind by globalisation become bitter and “cling to guns or religion”. their objections, if all goes to plan Hinckley will be a fully fledged member of society. He has been ordered to work or volunteer at least three days a week – he previously volunteered at a church and in the library and cafeteria of a mental hospital – and obtained his driver’s licence in 2011.
According to the conditions of his release, he can drive up to 30 miles unsupervised, or 50 if accompanied by his mother. His lawyer says he will soon register to vote.
Hinckley had already been allowed to visit his mother for days at a time. He will still have to see his doctors regularly and continue with his therapy, but barring a few restrictions on his activities, will otherwise be a free man. Mrs Davis, who is 63 and lives in California, where she was at the time of the assassination attempt, believes Hinckley has feigned remorse, and remains a danger to society. “If John Hinckley is haunted by anything, I think it’s that he didn’t succeed in his mission to assassinate the president,” she wrote after the ruling that led to his release.
In the 35 years since he fired a revolver six times at Reagan and his entourage, Hinckley has largely faded into obscurity. Amid the public outcry that followed the not guilty verdict, Congress passed a law making it more difficult to proceed with an insanity plea and three states eliminated the defence altogether. Hinckley, who considers himself an artist and had aspired to be a songwriter prior to his arrest, was portrayed in the 1990 musical by Stephen Sondheim, and depicted in a 2015 novel by Andreas Kleine.
Hinckley’s obsession with Foster, which started after he saw the film
has served as the inspiration for several songs, recast as tales of unrequited love. For 22 years at St Elizabeth’s he dated Leslie deVeau, the wealthy housewife who shot and killed her 10-year-old daughter in 1982. He also exchanged letters with Ted Bundy, the serial killer and rapist, and reached out to Charles Manson.
Barry Levine, Hinckley’s lawyer, has assured the residents of Kingsmill that they have nothing to fear. That remark has since become a rallying cry for Mr Obama’s opponents.
Earlier yesterday, Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Mrs Clinton, defended her, saying: “Obviously not everyone supporting Mr Trump is part of the altRight, but alt-Right leaders are with Trump, and their supporters appear to make up half the crowd.”
Mrs Clinton’s campaign noted that later in her address on Friday she expressed empathy for the “other basket” of Trump supporters, whom she said “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”.