President Biden branded supporters of Donald Trump “garbage” on Tuesday — at the same time as his vice president and would-be successor Kamala Harris tried to pitch herself and the Democratic party as unifiers in a truth-challenged closing appeal to voters.
The 81-year-old lame duck president — who has largely been sidelined from campaigning for Harris — delivered the potentially campaign-altering insult as he railed against “Kill Tony” podcast host Tony Hinchcliffe’s bit during Trump’s Sunday night rally, during which the comedian called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”
“Donald Trump has no character. He doesn’t give a damn about the Latino community,” Biden said during a campaign call at the White House Tuesday first reported by NBC. “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 demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”
The head-shaking comment drew immediate comparisons to then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s remark in 2016 that half of Trump’s supporters should be “put into the basket of deplorables.”
The insult, however, quickly became a rallying call for Trump supporters, who felt abandoned and patronized by the Democrat party and its East Coast elite supporters.
Trump then swept to victory in the presidential election in a historic upset — with many political pundits speculating that the “deplorables” insult played a role in the stunning outcome.
Clinton herself even said that the comment was a factor in her loss in her 2017 book, “What Happened.”
Outraged voters on X were quick to draw this comparison — and point out what happened in 2016.
“Hillary Clinton 2016: ‘They’re deplorables.’ 2016 Election Winner: Donald J. Trump,” one commentator mused.
“They learned nothing. Hillary Clinton’s ‘basket of deplorables’ comment was acknowledged by Dems to have been a huge mistake, but here’s Biden, *the sitting President * calling every Trump supporter ‘garbage,’” another wrote.
Trump, during his Tuesday night rally in Allentown, Pa., denounced Biden’s “garbage” remark, declaring it even worse than Clinton’s remark.
“Wow. That’s terrible,” Trump said of Biden’s comment.
“So, you have to remember Hillary [Clinton] — she said ‘deplorable’ and then she said ‘irredeemable’ … ‘garbage’ I think is worse,” Trump added.
Other voters also jumped on Biden for overshadowing Harris’ heavily promoted closing argument to the American public that she hoped would be a last-minute campaign boost.
“Joe Biden once again manages to completely destroy what was supposed to be Kamala’s big night by calling half the country garbage 7 days before the election. He hates her guts,” an X user said.
“Any momentum or optics Kamala was hoping to gain on her big night, was just squandered by Biden calling Trump supporters ‘garbage,’” another wrote.
Meanwhile, the White House went into panic mode, with Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates insisting that the president was referring specifically to “the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as ‘garbage.’”
In a transcript of Biden’s comments provided by the White House, his team argued there was meant to be an apostrophe in “supporters.”
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American,” the transcript read.
But conservatives blasted the clean-up attempt as “propaganda.”
“Politico just added an apostrophe to the quote, making it seem like Biden is just labeling one supporter as garbage. This is literal state propaganda,” popular X account End Wokeness fumed.
“The official White House transcript needs to be immediately corrected. Notice the use of the apostrophe in the transcript,” Kyle Jane Kremer, executive director of Women For America First, wrote on X. “Joe Biden’s words were clear that he was stating Trump’s supporters were the garbage.”
Biden also tried to walk back the insult.
“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. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say,” he wrote on X.
Democrats and the Harris-Walz campaign had spent two days pummeling Trump over Hinchcliffe’s remark, but Biden’s jab has seemingly given Republicans fresh ammunition.
Trump had distanced himself from Hinchcliffe, who drew widespread, bipartisan backlash for his line about Puerto Rico during his opener at the Madison Square Garden Trump rally on Sunday.
Republican vice presidential hopeful JD Vance quickly hit back at Biden.
“This is disgusting. Kamala Harris and her boss Joe Biden are attacking half of the country. There’s no excuse for this. I hope Americans reject it,” he wrote on X.
“I don’t know him, someone put him up there,” Trump, 78, later told reporters about the jab at Puerto Rico, after his campaign previously said the joke didn’t represent its or the former president’s views.
Hinchcliffe has since defended his controversial remark, insisting it was a joke.
“These people have no sense of humor,” he posted on X amid the controversy. “I love Puerto Rico and vacation there.”
During Trump’s rally in Allentown, Pa., which is home to over 34,000 Puerto Ricans, the former president was endorsed by Puerto Rico’s Shadow US Sen. Zoraida Buxó.
As a shadow senator, Buxó lacks voting power in the upper chamber.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who rallied with Trump in Allentown, blasted Biden’s attack.
“He’s talking about everyday Americans who love their country and want to dream big again and support you, Mr. President,” Rubio said. “And I hope [the Harris] campaign is about to apologize for what Joe Biden just said.”
“We are not garbage. We are patriots. We love America. Thank you for running.”
Trump’s campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt also ripped into Biden’s attack.
“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris hate America and don’t deserve four more years. Kamala must answer for this disgraceful attack on tens of millions of Americans.”
Biden, who has been overshadowed by the 2024 campaign battle between Trump and Harris, riled up backers of the former president last week with a quip about putting him in jail.
“If I said this five years ago, you’d lock me up: We gotta lock him up,” Biden, said during a campaign stop in New Hampshire last week.
Several seconds later, Biden backtracked: “Politically, lock him up — lock him out, that’s what we’ve got to do.”
