WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- Hillary Clinton said Saturday that she was wrong to call half of Donald Trump's supporters a "basket of deplorables," but she didn't back down from the description of his campaign. The Republican nominee said Clinton smeared many Americans and that it would take a political toll.

Less than 24 hours after she made the comments at a private New York City fundraiser, Clinton said in a statement that "last night I was 'grossly generalistic' and that's never a good idea. I regret saying 'half' -- that was wrong." But she argued that the word "deplorable" was reasonable to describe much of Trump's campaign.

"He has built his campaign largely on prejudice and paranoia, and given a national platform to hateful views and voices, including by retweeting fringe bigots with a few dozen followers and spreading their message to 11 million people," the Democratic nominee said.

Responding in a statement, Trump said it was "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 words and insults used in her failing campaign?"

Trump added that Clinton was showing "bigotry and hatred for millions of Americans," arguing that she was "incapable to serve as President of the United States."

Clinton, who has said she is the candidate to unify a divided country, made the "deplorables" comment at an LGBT fundraiser Friday night at a New York City restaurant, with about 1,000 people in attendance. She has made similar comments recently, including on an Israeli television station.

"To just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic -- you name it," she said at the fundraiser.

Clinton then pivoted and tried to characterize the other half of Trump's supporters, putting them in "that other basket" and saying they need empathy.

She described them as "people who 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."

Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill tweeted a defense Friday night, as soon as the story took off on social media. Not all Trump backers are racially discriminatory, he said.

"Obviously, not everyone supporting Trump is part of the alt-right, but alt-right leaders are with Trump," Merrill wrote. "And their supporters appear to make up half his crowd when you observe the tone of his events."

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway fired back.

"Nick, it's simply untrue. Come to an event; talk to real people who aren't donors. Or better: have Hillary apologize," Conway said.

Trump argued that the remark revealed that Clinton is disconnected from struggling Americans.

"Wow, Hillary Clinton was SO INSULTING to my supporters, millions of amazing, hard-working people. I think it will cost her at the polls!" Trump said in a tweet.

Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, also chimed in, with remarks at the Values Voter conference in Washington.

"The truth of the matter is that the men and women who support Donald Trump's campaign are hardworking Americans, farmers, coal miners, teachers, veterans, members of our law enforcement community, members of every class of this country who know that we can make America great again," he said.

Comments about voters -- also at private fundraisers -- have tripped up presidential nominees in the past.

Weeks before the 2012 election, Republican Mitt Romney landed in hot water for saying that 47 percent of the public would vote for Obama "no matter what" because they depended on government benefits and that Romney's job was "not to worry about those people."

During the 2008 Democratic primary, then-Sen. Barack Obama said that small-town voters "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Trump did not address Clinton's comment at his only scheduled public appearance Saturday, a funeral in St. Louis for social conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly.

Trump noted that Schlafly rooted for the underdog and "the idea that so-called little people, or the little person that she loved so much, could beat the system -- oftentimes, the rigged system."

On Saturday, Clinton's staff said she attended another fundraiser at the Armonk, N.Y., home of attorney David Boies. But reporters traveling with her campaign were not allowed in and did not see her.

Obama is expected to raise funds and engage in digital and media promotion for Clinton in Philadelphia and in New York on Tuesday. He will not be out on the campaign trail in full swing until October, White House officials said.

Warning for Iran

Trump sharply criticized Clinton on Friday at a rally in Pensacola, Fla. He said Clinton is "so protected" that "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."

Trump's comment appeared to play off a line he used during the primary race, in which he said that his supporters were so devoted to him that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in New York City and not lose any of them.

Trump often veered from his prepared speech Friday, offering more provocative declarations of his platform and regularly receiving extended cheers.

With regard to Iran, which Trump has spoken of antagonistically, he suggested that if the country harassed a U.S. vessel, he would respond with force. He also referred to the episode in January in which Iran seized two U.S. Navy patrol boats and accused them of spying.

"By the way, when Iran, when they circle our beautiful destroyers with their little boats," Trump said, "and they make gestures at our people that they shouldn't be allowed to make, they will be shot out of the water."

Later in the rally, he again criticized Clinton over what he said was an aggressive foreign policy.

"She's trigger-happy," he said.

At the rally, Trump also defended his campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again," which former President Bill Clinton recently suggested is a veiled message to white Southerners in particular because "the good old days ... weren't all that good in many ways."

Trump praised the media for pointing out that Bill Clinton said the same words, "make America great again," while campaigning for president in the early 1990s.

"'Make America great again -- racist, racist!' Except he used it. A lot," Trump said. "Surprised. I thought it was just ours. It's just one more Clinton lie. And even the media reported it as a big, fat, juicy lie. Thank you very much, fellas. Finally. Finally!"

And Trump once again suggested that he might lose the election because of voter fraud, telling his crowd: "Be very, very vigilant on Nov. 8. Watch what's happening. Watch what's happening."

Trump was interrupted only once by protesters during his hourlong speech. The group was quickly escorted out of the arena by security -- along with a large group of bikers who support Trump.

Information for this article was contributed by Catherine Lucey and Steve Peoples of The Associated Press; by Jennifer Jacobs, Kevin Cirilli and Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg News; by Nick Corasaniti of The New York Times; and by Jenna Johnson and Juliet Eilperin of The Washington Post.

A Section on 09/11/2016