The White House launched into panic mode on Tuesday night after President Biden referred to Donald Trump supporters as ‘garbage.’
The president was speaking to a Latino advocacy group when he made the boneheaded gaffe that drew instant comparisons to Hillary Clinton’s infamous dismissal of Trump voters as ‘deplorables’ in 2016.
‘Just the other day, a speaker at his (Trump’s) rally called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,”‘ Biden reiterated to a Latino advocacy group.
‘The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters, his, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.’
In a desperate attempt to clean up the 81-year-old’s president’s mess, a White House spokesman added an apostrophe to the word ‘supporter’s’ to imply that Biden was only referring to one person.
The White House launched into panic mode on Tuesday night after President Biden referred to Donald Trump supporters as ‘garbage’
The 81-year-old commander-in-chief called Donald Trump supporters ‘garbage’, evoking memories of Hillary Clinton ‘s infamous dismissal of Trump voters as ‘deplorables’ in 2016, which contributed to her shock loss
Biden’s team also provided a transcript of what he said, bizarrely claiming that he used the word ‘supporters’ as a possessive – written as ‘supporter’s’ – and he was only criticizing comedian Tony Hinchcliffe for making the joke about Puerto Rico being an ‘island of garbage’
The damage control statement insisted Biden was referring to just one supporter – comedian Tony Hinchcliffe for making the joke about Puerto Rico being an ‘island of garbage.’
‘Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage—which is the only word I can think of to describe it,’ Biden said in his own cleanup statement.
‘His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation.’
However, people on both sides of the aisle were either perplexed or outraged with the president’s statement.
Trump seized on Biden’s comment, declaring it was ‘worse’ than what Clinton said eight years ago, and Democrats immediately began distancing themselves from the president.
His running mate, JD Vance, made several tweets furious about the incident, writing: ‘A mother mourning her son who died of a fentanyl overdose is not garbage. A truck driver who can’t afford rising diesel prices is not garbage. A father who wants to afford groceries is not garbage.’
‘Kamala Harris and Joe Biden ought to be ashamed of themselves,’ he added.
Trump’s campaign social media account posted the video and commented: ‘When Joe wakes up and wonders why his intern tweeted this — we will leave this here as a reminder.’
Trump seized on Biden’s comment, declaring it was ‘worse’ than what Clinton said eight years ago, and Democrats immediately began distancing themselves from the president
Even some liberals were outraged by Biden’s comments.
‘As the leader of the Democratic Party, President Biden had ONE job tonight: to STFU and let the current nominee have the news cycle. However you interpret his words, he wasn’t able to do that,’ wrote Leah McElrath.
It came as Harris was hoping to capture the nation’s full attention with a carefully planned rally in front of the White House for 75,000 Democrats one week before Election Day. Harris used the event to make her final case for why she should be elected president.
New York Magazine writer Jonathan Chait added: ‘I think Biden was trying to describe the speaker’s comment, not all Trump supporters, as garbage. I also think Biden should be staying away from cameras and media but his ego won’t let him.’
Poll aggregator and author Nate Silver went a step further, suggesting the comments made Biden unfit to continue his lame duck term.
‘The fact that he can’t consistently speak clearly to a point of reasonable comprehension might also seem to imply that he shouldn’t be the President of the United States,’ the Signal and the Noise author wrote.
One journalist, John Harwood, attempted to tut tut the anger at Biden, calling ‘the phony outrage for Biden’s comment is garbage.’
When Biden’s comment emerged Trump was at a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He was told about it by Republican senator Marco Rubio while still on stage.
Rubio told the crowd he had ‘breaking news’ and that Biden had called them ‘garbage’. He added: ‘We are not garbage, we are patriots, we love America.’
Trump said ‘that’s terrible’ and recalled Clinton’s ‘deplorables’ remark. He added: ‘Garbage, I think. is worse.’
He added: ‘Please forgive him (Biden) because he knoweth not what he said.’
Donald Trump Jr. said: ‘The media spent all week crying about a joke from a comedian. Meanwhile, Tim Walz called Trump supporters Nazis. Kamala Harris refused to condemn it.
Biden’s team claimed he was only criticizing comedian Tony Hinchcliffe who performed at Sunday’s rally at Madison Square Garden
‘And now Kamala’s biggest Democrat ally, Joe Biden, is calling all Trump supporters “garbage”. Absolutely disgusting!!!’
Elon Musk, the Trump-supporting Tesla and SpaceX chief, added: ‘Biden just called half of America ‘garbage.’
Biden’s bungled statement also took attention away from Kamala Harris’ campaign event in Washington D.C. intended to be bring her ‘closing argument’ to voters.
Josh Shapiro, governor of the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, was among the first Democrats to distance themselves from Biden’s comment.
Shapiro was live on CNN when informed of the remark.
He said: ‘I would never insult the good people of Pennsylvania or any Americans even if they chose to support a candidate that I didn’t support.
‘It’s certainly not words I would choose.’
Biden, on a Zoom call with supporters, stepped on Harris’ moment by appearing to lash out at Trump supporters in what Republicans lambasted as a ‘disgusting’ attack.
The president was weighing in after a comedian at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday compared Puerto Rico to a ‘floating island of garbage’.
Supporters listen as Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at PPL Center, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, in Allentown, Pa
People on both sides of the aisle were either perplexed or outraged with the president’s statement
Biden said: ‘The only garbage I see floating out there is his (Trump’s) supporter’s.’
He later disputed that he had called Trump supporters ‘garbage’. He said that by ‘garbage’ he meant ‘hateful rhetoric’ that had been on display at the Madison Square Garden rally.
He made the incendiary comment on a Zoom call organized by the advocacy group Voto Latino.
Biden told those on the call: ‘And just the other day, a speaker at his (Trump’s) 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 from, in my home state of Delaware, they’re good, decent, honorable people.
‘The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters, his, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.’
Responding to the furor the White House released a transcript of Biden’s comments in which the word ‘supporter’s’ had an apostrophe.
Officials suggested the president was referring specifically and only to the comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, who made the Puerto Rico joke.
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks on The Ellipse just south of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 29, 2024
The transcript said: ‘The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s – his – his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.’
Spokesman Andrew Bates said Biden ‘referred to the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as “garbage”.’
At a fundraiser in 2016, Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee at the time, dismissed Trump supporters by saying that ‘half’ fit into what she called a ‘basket of deplorables.’
