"Thirty percent of the people that voted for Donald Trump had voted for President Obama. Why?” ," Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said. | Lauren Victoria Burke/AP Hillary Clinton ‘wrong’ about Trump voters, Durbin says

Hillary Clinton’s remarks earlier this month characterizing voters who cast ballots for President Donald Trump as xenophobic and misogynistic are “not helpful at all,” Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin said Sunday, insisting that the Democratic Party is moving beyond Clinton as it approaches the midterm elections.

Speaking at a conference in India, Clinton said her success in the 2016 election came in parts of the U.S. that are economically strong, “optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving-forward” while Trump won more downtrodden regions. “His whole campaign, ‘Make America Great Again,’ was looking backward,” she said. “You know, you didn’t like black people getting rights, you don’t like women getting jobs, you don’t want to see that Indian-American succeeding more than you are, whatever your problem is, I’m going to solve it.”


The remarks prompted a quick rebuke from Republicans and especially the Trump administration, which used Clinton’s characterization to cast her once again as out of touch with the majority of the country. Durbin (D-Ill.), too, said Clinton was off base with her comments because a significant number of Trump’s supporters had previously voted for President Barack Obama.

“My friend Hillary Clinton is wrong. Thirty percent of the people that voted for Donald Trump had voted for President Obama. Why?” Durbin told “Fox News Sunday.“

“The same people who looked for change with President Obama thought there wasn't enough, as far as their personal lives were concerned, and they supported Donald Trump. That is a reality the Democrats acknowledge.”

The Illinois senator said that while Clinton will continue to generate headlines, Democrats have turned the page from her surprise 2016 loss as they move toward efforts to unseat the president in 2020.

“Hillary Clinton, like every American, has the right to express her point of view and she obviously gets press coverage,” he said. “But we are moving onto the next chapter in American history. We have new Democratic leadership, and more people aspiring to be candidates in 2020. It’ll be a different cast of characters completely.”

