Clinton: Half Of Trump Supporters Are In "Basket Of Deplorables"
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton making news on the campaign trail tonight. This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon. Here to discuss, three talk show hosts, Chris Stigall of WPHT in Philly, John Fredericks, a Trump supporter and Mr. Joe Madison of Sirius XM. Long time no see, Mr. Madison. Are you doing all right? Hello to all of you. Joe, first to you. Listen to Secretary Clinton at a fundraiser here in New York tonight.</s>HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables, right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, islamophobic, you name it. But the other basket of people who feel the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them --</s>LEMON: It's an interesting to hear what she went on to say about that. It sounds like there was kind of mid thought, but do you think that she should have said that, Joe, basket of deplorables, racists, sexists?</s>JOE MADISON, SIRIUSXM HOST: I think I heard in the last segment someone said, well, she should said half or I don't know if she should have said one third or you could put ten people. I mean, you know, there have been some very deplorable people that even Donald Trump has had to denounce. We had to force him to denounce David Duke and others. But let's understand one thing, she obviously not speaking literally, it was figuratively. And, secondly, this is what you do and say at fundraisers. You are with -- it's almost like being a cheerleader. It's like being with your crowd and you think this is something, you wait until you get to a Republican fundraiser. You'll have the same thing said about liberals, about progressives. This is what people do at fundraisers.</s>LEMON: But, Chris, I have to ask you, though, because you remember when Donald Trump says, you know, said that he was -- he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and he got a lot of flak for that. Do you think it's similar?</s>CHRIS STIGALL, HOST, WPHT MORNING SHOW, PHILADELPHIA: Actually, what this reminds me of, this reminds me of Mitt Romney's 47 percent comment caught at a fundraiser and it was devastating. I actually didn't hear this until I was on my way in to do your show tonight, Don. And I have to tell you, the Trump people would be smart to run this in an ad often. I don't know that I've ever heard a candidate define voters in such a pejorative, using such pejoratives. You can call him a racist, sexist, xenophobia running against him, but to call him supporters, half of them names? That could be terminal for her. That could be a big error tonight.</s>MADISON: I've heard Donald Trump and I play this on my show almost every day. I heard Donald Trump and I can give you the clip if you want, I'll be glad to send it to you saying I love stupid people and he was talking about his supporters.</s>LEMON: He said I love the uneducated.</s>MADISON: Well, uneducated, stupid. I love the uneducated people. Who calls his supporters uneducated? Who does that? We don't want uneducated people making uneducated decisions like voting for Donald Trump. So be very careful when you bring that up because that clip is out there and if Hillary Clinton's people are smart, they'll play that every day during the campaign.</s>STIGALL: What he did not say is I love Hillary Clinton's stupid people, I love the stupid people that support Hillary Clinton. Far different than saying the people that support my opponent are racist and xenophobic and blah, blah, blah.</s>MADISON: You don't call our own supporters uneducated.</s>LEMON: John, you're sitting there and you're awfully quiet. Is this like when President Obama talked about bitter people in Pennsylvania clinging to their guns and religion? That hurt him. Do you think it's going to hurt her?</s>JOHN FREDERICKS, SYNDICATED TALK RADIO HOST: The Clinton campaign is in free fall, dead panic in Brooklyn. They don't know what to do. They're delusional. They don't have any idea what e-mails are going to get out there. They don't know what Wikileaks is going to do. Right now, Trump is surging all over the country. Don, I was the first one in America to predict in media that he was going to be the Republican nominee and I'm predicting that he's going to win on November 8th. And if you --</s>LEMON: Everybody's been the first, John, by the way. I'm not saying you're revising history, but a lot of people have been, but go ahead.</s>FREDERICKS: If you saw Mrs. Clinton tonight, that was a desperate attempt to frame Trump's backers, calling them stupid or whatever she's trying to do. At the end of the day, they have no plan -- her entire campaign right now is based on bashing Trump and then continuing to bash Trump. They have no plan. They're in a free-fall. Trump is going to win, Don. I mean, I don't know what these people are going to do because they're not -- they're not seeing reality right now.</s>LEMON: OK, I want to play this in because to Joe Madison's point, Joe, you said if you go to a conservative or a Republican rally, you'll see similar things. Donald Trump on the campaign trail tonight down in Pensacola, Florida, he said this about Hillary Clinton.</s>TRUMP: Because she is being so protected, she could walk into this arena right now and shoot somebody with 20,000 people watching right smack in the middle of the heart and she wouldn't be prosecuted, OK? That's what's happened. That is what's happened to our country. I never thought I'd see the day when this is happening to our country.</s>LEMON: So, Chris, is that appropriate?</s>STIGALL: No. Would I tell him to say it? No. I long gave up the business of spinning for Donald Trump. I don't do it. An overwhelming majority of the country believe Mrs. Clinton should have been punished by the FBI. A majority of people polled say something should have gone down with the FBI and Mrs. Clinton's e-mails. It didn't. Most of this country feels she is getting away with something criminal. I heard what you said, she hasn't been charged with anything criminal, fine. But most people believe she's done something criminal and that sentiment exists.</s>LEMON: I don't disagree with you, but to come on and definitively say that Hillary Clinton has committed a crime is just factually inaccurate and I was trying to get that across to the guest who is an attorney. I was shocked that he doesn't understand that. But anyway, I think most people get it. Joe, do you think that that was appropriate to say? I mean, you got a good chuckle out of that.</s>MADISON: I got a good chuckle out of it because as I said, you're going to hear it on both sides. Look, again, I've played on my show Donald Trump saying I could stand in the middle of Fifth Street --</s>LEMON: Fifth Avenue.</s>MADISON: Fifth Avenue, excuse me and shoot somebody and --</s>LEMON: Joe, let me play that.</s>MADISON: Go ahead, please.</s>TRUMP: They say I have the most loyal people. Did you ever see that? Where I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK? It's like incredible.</s>LEMON: Go ahead, Joe.</s>MADISON: I mean, whoever would have heard -- in all my life I've never heard any presidential candidate, Republican or Democrat, say something like that. I mean, so you can see how -- let me say this quickly and I think we all can agree with this. I will be so glad when we start talking about issues that impact my child, my grandchild, my this back and forth attack, what's going on right now, I don't know if this is pre-debate nonsense. But at some point in time we have got to get into the substance of public policy. And that's what I'm waiting for because what I think we're all tired of is this attack/counterattack. Let's talk about substantive public policy issues, education, the economy, and who will lead the country in the next four years. That's what I think the American people really want.</s>LEMON: And substantive issues like taxes. We'll discuss that.</s>MADISON: Absolutely.</s>LEMON: We'll discuss that when we come right back. Don't go anywhere.