Donald Trump said Monday he at first didn't think it was within the "realm of possible" that Hillary Clinton called half his followers a "basket of deplorables," but now he thinks it's the "single biggest mistake of the political season."
"When I saw this in its full form, and I saw the anger with which she said it, the way she spoke, I think it's the single biggest mistake of the political season," the GOP nominee told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" program.
Trump noted that Clinton's comment, made during a fundraiser Friday, was compared on a news show to 2012 GOP candidate Mitt Romney's remarks that 47 percent of American voters were dependent on government and not paying taxes.
"They said it's much worse," said Trump. "You people did a poll and it came out 87 percent much worse than the 47 percent which is pretty catastrophic."
Clinton has said she regrets making the generalization about Trump's supporters, but Trump said when someone is president, "you have to be president of everybody."
"You are president of all the people," said Trump. "You are not president of 50 percent or 75 percent. You are president of all the people. You are president of everybody and somehow it has to get out there that it's not a certain group of people that's going to be left behind. They have already been left behind with jobs and lots of other things."
Trump said much of his base is blue-collar workers, but "everything else" as well.
"I'm really proud of the blue collar, because the job they do is incredible and the fact is they haven't been taken care of properly by this country," said Trump. "It's very interesting, people 18 years ago were making more in real wages, many people, but on average, people 18 years ago were making more than they are making today and they are working harder today and in many cases to a large extent because of this horrible ObamaCare, in many cases they are working two jobs."
But, he continued, his base also includes women, African-Americans and Hispanics.
"You saw the poll numbers for Hispanics this weekend because they want to protect their jobs. They don't want people poring in and taking their jobs," said Trump. "I really believe my base is everything."
Trump also spoke out about San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's continued stance on the national anthem, and about other football players who joined his protests on Sunday, also the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
"I think it's a lack of respect for our country," said Trump. "I really said they should try another country, see if they like it better, see if they are going to be making $20 million being a second string quarterback."