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Center for American Progress Official on Clinton's Remarks About Trump Voters: 'Not a Great Statement'

Chuck Todd: 'What we have just seen here is the full lancing of the Clintons off of the party'

March 15, 2018

The backlash against Hillary Clinton's remarks about Donald Trump's "backward" campaign and his bigoted voters in the middle of the country continued Thursday, with a Center for American Progress official saying it "was not a great statement."

Clinton said in India that she won places "that represent two-thirds of America's gross domestic product" in 2016 and went on to say Donald Trump appealed to voters who were against the advancement of minorities and women.

"I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward," Clinton said. "And his whole campaign—‘Make America Great Again’—was looking backward. You know, you didn’t like black people getting rights, you don’t like women, you know, getting jobs, you don’t want, you know, to see that Indian American succeeding more than you are. Whatever your problem is, I’m going to solve it."

MSNBC host Chuck Todd played the clip on "Meet The Press Daily," comparing it to Clinton's remarks in 2016 about half of Trump's supporters belonging in a "basket of deplorables."

"Why did she say it that way?" Todd asked.

"It was not a great statement to make," said Daniella Gibbs Leger, a top official at the left-wing think tank, going on to say Trump and Republicans like having Clinton in the news. "There seems to be this desire to pull her back and re-litigate 2016. I don't think she wants to do that."

"We have an entire Russia investigation that helps us re-litigate 2016 daily, for what it's worth," Todd said.

Clinton has frequently discussed the 2016 election since her defeat, however, writing the bestseller What Happened to lay blame on various factors for the loss.

Red-state Democrats like Sen. Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.), Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D., N.D.) have slammed Clinton's remarks; Heitkamp even remarked Thursday that Clinton couldn't go away "soon enough."

Guest Bill Kristol suggested Republicans should quickly put Clinton's remarks in an ad, and NBC News reporter Carol Lee noted Democrats were far more willing to distance themselves from Clinton and her husband, the 42nd president.

"The Clintons are out of the Democratic Party. What we have just seen here is the full lancing of the Clintons off of the party, haven't we?" Todd asked.