Moments after President Biden shook up the 2024 campaign by calling Trump supporters “garbage,” the White House and prominent media figures sprang into action to try and tamp down the severity of the commander in chief’s insult.
Below, The Post presents a minute-by-minute look at how Tuesday night’s spin effort unfolded.
Around 7 p.m. Tuesday: Biden says on a teleconference hosted by Voto Latino: “Donald Trump has no character. He doesn’t give a damn about the Latino community.”
“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 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.”
7:21 p.m.
Politico White House bureau chief and MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire publishes an item reading: “Biden, in a Zoom call with the organization Voto Latino, said ‘the only garbage’ was the ‘hatred’ of Trump supporters who said such things about American citizens.”
7:33 p.m.
NBC News senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez tweets: “Pres. Biden tonight: ‘Donald Trump has no character. He doesn’t give a damn about the Latino community…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.’”
8:12 p.m.
Gutierrez tweets: “A White House spokesman says Pres. Biden was referring to the comedian who supported Trump and insulted Puerto Rico.”
8:29 p.m.
Lemire tweets: “President Biden tonight, on Zoom with Latinos, denounced attacks on Puerto Rico [.]. In somewhat rambling remarks, Biden said the ‘only garbage’ he saw was intolerance of Trump supporters who believed that[.] A WH spox said POTUS was talking about hatred of comedian who made the joke[.]”
8:40 p.m.
Lemire tweets: “The full Biden quote from the Zoom tonight, which is being taken out of context.” Accompanying the text is a screenshot of a transcript which has Biden saying: “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 apostrophe suggests Biden was referring specifically to insult comic Tony Hinchcliffe.
8:48 p.m.
White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates tweets out the same quote with the same “supporter’s” formulation.
8:50 p.m.
Gutierrez tweets: “White House provides this transcript.” It includes the following quote: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters’ — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.” Unlike the snippet posted by Lemire, the apostrophe is after the last “s” in “supporters,” again suggesting Biden started to talk about Trump fans before backtracking to criticize the former president.
8:57 p.m.
Gutierrez tweets out video of Biden’s comment, showing that Biden paused after “supporters” as if ending a sentence before starting a new one about Trump.
9:09 p.m.
Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro is asked about the video during an appearance on CNN. “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.”
9:31 p.m.
@JoeBiden posts on X: “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. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation.”
Around 10 p.m.
White House press office makes public “official” transcript of Biden’s comments: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”
10:20 p.m.
The Black List founder and CEO Franklin Leonard calls Biden’s comment a “nothingburger” during a CNN panel appearance, adding: “As someone who had a stutter growing up, it’s very obvious to me that there’s an apostrophe at the end of supporters there. He was referring to the garbage spewed by supporters, not simply the supporters themselves.”
Republican panelist Scott Jennings responds: “I actually do believe he, Harris, the Democratic Party, and most of their campaign do believe that half the country is garbage. They’ve also said people who go to Trump rallies are Nazis. And so it’s pretty apparent the disdain with which they hold half of the country in.”
6:25 a.m.
Wednesday: Lemire appears on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to discuss Biden’s remark: “Some on the right have seized that comment to mean ‘his supporters’ — meaning Donald Trump’s supporters, meaning all Trump supporters, half the country … it’s certainly a story on the right, who are trying to paint this to be the next ‘basket of deplorables.’”
Host Joe Scarborough: “They’re trying to make a firestorm out of something … Joe Biden obviously doesn’t believe that.”
