Mook: Clinton's 'deplorables' comment 'definitely could have alienated' voters

[portlander23]

Mook: Clinton's 'deplorables' comment 'definitely could have alienated' voters
Eugene Scott
CNN

Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook acknowledged the former secretary of state calling half of Donald Trump's supporters "deplorables" alienated voters, saying that's why the Democratic presidential nominee publicly expressed regret over the remarks so quickly thereafter.

"Hillary apologized right away after that and said that she misspoke and that she regretted the comment. That's something that Donald Trump wouldn't do, you know," he told CNN's Jake Tapper during a special edition of CNN's "State of the Union," filmed at Harvard University's Institute of Politics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The event, "War Stories: Inside Campaign 2016," also included Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and was the first time that the two managers appeared together alone since the presidential campaign.

On a special assignment from the Clinton campaign, Diane Hessan studied how undecided voters were responding to the campaign.

She wrote an op-ed in the Boston Globe sharing reflections from her study, which showed the reaction to the "deplorables" was stronger than when FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to Congress saying they were probing to see if additional emails on the laptop of one her top aides could have an impact on a closed investigation to Clinton's use of a primary email server.

The deplorable comment didn't just hurt Mrs. Clinton's chances, it gave Trump supporters something to rally around.