Republicans pounce on Biden's 'garbage' remarks

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President Biden tried to clarify his remarks about his predecessor's supporters, as Republicans latched onto his comments, saying he was calling half the country "garbage."

The dispute gave additional momentum to the controversy unleashed by a “joke” about Puerto Rico told at former President Trump's Madison Square Garden rally — one that Trump hasn't directly addressed yet. That joke has roiled the presidential campaign in its waning days as Puerto Ricans are a significant presence in places like Pennsylvania, which both the Trump and Harris campaigns see as a must-win state.

In a video call Tuesday with Voto Latino, Biden sounded like he was calling Trump supporters “garbage.” At issue is the placement of an apostrophe.

Biden in his remarks appeared to say:

"Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a 'floating island of garbage.' The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American."

But the White House quickly issued a transcript to put Biden’s comment in a broader context, insisting that Biden had said "supporter's," to refer to the comedian's quote and not "supporters."

"And just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a 'floating island of garbage.' Well, let me tell you something. I don't -- I -- I don't know the Puerto Rican that -- that I know -- or a Puerto Rico, where I'm fr- -- in my home state of Delaware, they're good, decent, honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter's -- his -- his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it's un-American."

Later, Biden attempted to clean up his remarks on X, saying that he was referring to the comedian’s joke at the rally.

Joe Biden had largely been an afterthought one week before the election in which he’d once hoped to win a second term.

Not anymore.

The president inadvertently injected himself into the homestretch of the campaign and may have handed a big assist to his erstwhile rival, ex-President Donald Trump, who is struggling to quell a furor over his bigotry-filled rally at Madison Square Garden earlier this week.

The White House quickly tried to clean up the president’s remarks, with spokesman Andrew Bates saying he’d been referring to the “hateful rhetoric” at the rally in New York, not the former president’s backers.

And in a further sign that the White House recognizes the potential political fallout of the episode, Biden himself took to social media to address it.

Biden’s comment drew immediate comparisons with then-Democratic nominee Hillary’s Clinton’s remark in 2016 that half of Trump’s supporters should be “put into the basket of deplorables” because of their “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic” views. Her remarks became a rallying call for Trump and conservative media and remain a badge of honor for Trump fans who view East Coast Democratic elites as condescending and disdainful of their way of life.

And Trump’s campaign seized on Biden’s remarks to try to create the same kind of dynamic, claiming that the ex-president is supported by “Latinos, Black voters, union workers, angel moms, law enforcement officers, border patrol agents, and Americans of all faiths,” while his opponents “have labeled these great Americans as fascists, Nazis, and now, garbage.” The Trump campaign’s national press secretary Karoline Leavitt added: “There’s no way to spin it: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris don’t just hate President Trump, they despise the tens of millions of Americans who support him.”

Harris now has a new political problem
No one can say how this latest twist in a turbulent campaign will affect the final result. But in the vicious heat of the last week of the deadlocked presidential campaign, when even a few imprecise words can wreak significant political consequences, it may not matter what Biden really meant. Perception is everything.

Just when Harris’ team wanted to keep the attention on Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, which played into her contrast message on Tuesday night, the president handed Harris a political mess. She’s now almost certain to be asked whether she also regards Trump’s backers as “garbage.” Her answer will only prolong the story. The former president is also likely to seize on the gaffe to argue that Democrats view working Americans in the heartland with contempt.

A Trump fundraising email Tuesday evening read: “FIRST Hillary called you a DEPLORABLE! THEN they called you a FASCIST! And moments ago Kamala’s boss Biden called you GARBAGE!”

His campaign has already been trying to twist fallout from claims that Trump pined for the kind of generals that served Adolf Hitler into an argument that Harris believes all of his supporters are Nazis.

Biden’s “garbage” remark may also offer Trump an opening to finally spin his way out of the backlash about Puerto Rico caused by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at the New York rally. “Probably he shouldn’t have been there,” Trump said of the comedian in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that aired Tuesday evening. His earlier comments that the event was “an absolute love-fest” had done nothing to defuse the controversy.

More broadly, a Biden comment that will be portrayed by pro-Trump media as contempt for the ex-president’s supporters came at exactly the moment that Harris is trying to come across as a unifying figure to win over Republicans who are disaffected with Trump’s extremism but are not yet ready to take the leap to vote for a Democrat.

“Here is my pledge to you,” Harris said on Tuesday night, at a rally on the Ellipse in Washington, the spot where Trump told his supporters to “fight like hell” before the invasion of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. “I pledge to seek common ground and commonsense solutions to make your life better.”

The vice president went on: “To people who disagree with me, unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy. He wants to put them in jail. I’ll give them a seat at the table.”

Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday said she strongly disagrees with criticisms of groups of people based on the candidate they support. Her remarks came after President Joe Biden came under fire the night before for his reaction to a comedian's racist joke at a rally for former President Donald Trump.

Speaking to reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews before leaving for campaign events, Harris said that Biden had "clarified his comments," but added, "I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they voted for."

Harris sought to double down on her message of unity Wednesday, telling reporters: "I believe that the work that I do is about representing all the people, whether they support me or not. And as president of the United States, I will be a president for all Americans, whether you vote for me or not."

She added, "I respect the fact that we all have so much more in common than what separates us, and that most people want a president that understands that, that gets that and approaches their role of leadership that way."

The vice president said that she spoke to Biden Tuesday night but they did not discuss the president's remark.

Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, defended Biden in interviews Wednesday morning, saying that the president had clarified his remarks. He also echoed Harris' unity messaging. “I have made it absolutely clear that we want everyone as a part of this,” Walz said during an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America."

“President Biden was very clear that he’s speaking about the rhetoric we heard at that [rally] so it doesn’t undermine it," Walz said on "CBS Mornings." "People are hungry to come back together. They’re hungry to find a unifying message. They’re hungry for us to find solutions, whether it’s prices or whether it’s reproductive care, they want to see solutions."

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended Biden at the press briefing Wednesday. “He was not calling Trump supporters garbage, which is why he put out this is why he wanted to make sure that we put out a statement that clarified what he meant and what he was trying to say,” she said. “Hateful rhetoric, hateful rhetoric that he hears and this is something that we’ve done many times from here, we’ll call that out.”

Harris has sought to walk a fine line in criticizing Trump while not alienating his supporters, pointing to Trump's divisive rhetoric. During an interview this month on Fox News, anchor Bret Baier asked Harris if she thought Trump voters were stupid.

"Oh god, I would never say that about the American people," she said. "And in fact, if you listen to Donald Trump, if you watch any of his rallies, he’s the one who tends to demean and belittle and diminish the American people."