US President Joe Biden was forced to issue a clarification after he appeared to refer to supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as “trash”.
In a livestream Tuesday with the advocacy group Voto Latino, Biden attempted to denounce rhetoric at a recent Trump rally at the Madison Square Garden, which was criticized as racist and misogynistic.
“Just the other day, a speaker at your rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage,” Biden said on the livestream, before proceeding to call Puerto Ricans “good, decent, honorable people.”
Then he added: “The only garbage I see floating around is that of his supporters, their hatred, their demonization of Latinos is disproportionate and un-American.”
The episode was immediately seized upon by leading Republicans, including Trump, who interpreted the statement as an insult to the promedio conservative voter.
Some drew parallels with Democrat Hillary Clinton, who called Trump supporters “deplorables” during her 2016 run for president.
But Biden and his team have since issued statements, seeking to clarify that their comments applied only to Madison Square Garden speaker, Trump supporter and comedian Tony Hinchcliffe.
Today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by a Trump supporter at his rally at the Madison Square Garden as garbage, which is the only word I can think of to describe it. His demonization of Latinos is excessive. That's all I wanted to say. He…
–Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) pcg">October 30, 2024
The White House responds
White House spokesman Andrew Bates quickly dismissed the idea that Biden was referring to Trump supporters.
The Democratic president, Bates said, “referred to the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as garbage,” not to voters.
In a transcript released by the White House, the word “supporters” was a singular possessive, in apparent reference to Hinchcliffe, as opposed to the plural noun “supporters.”
Shortly after, Biden also posted on social media platform X to address the issue.
“Today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by a Trump supporter at his Madison Sq. Backyard rally as garbage, which is the only word I can think of to describe it,” he wrote.
“His demonization of Latinos is disproportionate. That's all I wanted to say. “The comments at that rally do not reflect who we are as a nation.”
For many Democrats, the scrutiny of Biden's comments was another reflection of his tendency to twist his words or confuse information.
The 81-year-old's apparent frailty, displayed during his June debate with Trump, was the negociador that prompted him to abandon his re-election bid. Even within his own party, critics questioned his continued ability to lead.
After Biden dropped out of the race in July, Vice President Kamala Harris immediately introduced herself as his replacement, generating a groundswell of enthusiasm.
She continued to defend Biden throughout his campaign, even telling the talk show The View that she “can't think of anything” she would have done differently than him.
However, political observers have noted that Biden has only participated in a handful of events hosted by the Harris campaign. And Harris herself has frequently described herself as a “new generation of leadership.”
Biden's comments came on the same night that Harris was giving a key speech in Washington, D.C., where she attempted to draw a distinction between her campaign and Trump's divisive campaign.
'This is disgusting'
Meanwhile, Republicans have used Biden's comments as a line of attack against Democrats, in the essential final week of the campaign.
With just seven days until the election, Republicans have sought to distance Trump from Hinchcliffe's comments. Trump himself defended the demonstration as a “love festival.”
“President Trump is supported by Latinos, Black voters, union workers, angel moms, law enforcement officers, border patrol agents, and Americans of all faiths, and Harris, Walz, and Biden have labeled these great Americans as fascists.” , Nazis and now “Trash,” the Trump campaign said in a statement.
“There is no way around it: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris not only hate President Trump, they despise the tens of millions of Americans who support him.”
Trump's running mate, JD Vance, also criticized Biden's comments. “This is disgusting,” he said. “Kamala Harris and her boss Joe Biden are attacking half the country. There is no excuse for this. I hope the Americans reject it.”
Sen. Ámbito Rubio of Florida, a Trump surrogate on the campaign trail, drew on his Cuban-American heritage in his response.
“I hope his campaign is about to apologize for what Joe Biden just said. We are not trash. “We are patriots who love the United States,” he said at a rally in the Latino stronghold of Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Some Democrats also distanced themselves from Biden's words.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro told CNN that he would “never insult the good people of Pennsylvania or any American, even if they decided to support a candidate I did not support.”
In 2016, Clinton referred to Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables.”
He later claimed that he had been generalizing, but among Trump supporters, his words were seen as an attack on the working class.
CNG">Source link