Biden Attempts To Clarify His ‘Garbage’ Comment As Republicans Say It Insults All Trump Supporters
by Siladitya Ray · ForbesTopline
President Joe Biden on Tuesday appeared to describe Donald Trump’s supporters as “garbage” while denouncing a disparaging remark about Puerto Rico at former President’s Madison Square Garden rally—drawing criticism from the Trump campaign—before clarifying that he was using the word to describe “hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico.”
Key Facts
In a video addressing Latino voters, Biden called out comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s remarks, calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” at Trump’s rally in New York City on Sunday.
The president called Puerto Ricans “good, decent, honorable people” before appearing to say, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters, his, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”
The White House released a transcript of Biden’s call—which reads “his supporter’s—his—his demonization of Latinos,”—with the apostrophe implying the garbage comment was aimed at Hinchcliffe.
The comments were immediately picked up by Trump’s allies, who accused Biden of describing half of the country as “garbage” and equated it to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 comments, referring to Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables.”
In a statement to the press, the Trump campaign accused Biden of insulting “tens of millions of Americans,” and asked if Harris would “apologize and disavow Joe Biden's remarks.”
Biden also issued a statement on X saying he was referring to the “hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump's supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage…That's all I meant to say.”
Chief Critic
Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, criticized Biden’s comments on X: “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.” In a follow up post Vance wrote: “Will the networks that obsessively covered a joke from a comedian at a Trump rally cover the fact that the Kamala Harris campaign is insulting half of the country?”
How Did Trump React To Biden’s ‘garbage’ Remark?
At a Trump campaign rally in Allentown Pennsylvania, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., read out Biden’s remarks to the former president. Trump said “That’s terrible,” before bringing up Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment from 2016 and added, “Garbage, I think, is worse, right?” The former president followed up with, “But he doesn’t know. You have to please forgive him. Please forgive him, for he not knoweth what he said.”
Key Background
For the second time in the last two weeks, Biden’s comments have triggered controversy and threatened to draw focus away from Harris’ closing message of unity. While speaking about Trump at a campaign event in New Hampshire last week, Biden said “We got to lock him up,” and quickly added, “Politically lock him up. Lock him out. That’s what we have to do.” The comment drew outrage from conservatives on social media who claimed it was a sign of the Justice Department being weaponized against Trump. The former president and his aides are trying to draw parallels between Biden’s remark and Clinton’s 2016 remarks from a campaign fund-raiser where she said half of Trump’s supporters were, “what I call the basket of deplorables…The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it…he has lifted them up.” Despite attacking Biden’s comments, Trump himself has not shied away from disparaging Democrats using phrases like the “enemy from within.”
Tangent
While speaking at the Trump rally on Sunday, Hinchcliffe said, “There’s a lot going on. I don’t know if you know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.” The roast comic’s remark drew almost universal criticism from Democrats and several GOP lawmakers, while the Trump campaign sought to distance itself saying his jokes were not vetted. In an interview with Sean Hannity that aired on Monday, Trump said Hinchcliffe had “nothing to do with us” as he accused the Democrats of trying to “make a big deal” out of it. He then added: “And I can’t imagine it’s a big deal. I’ve done more for Puerto Rico than any president, I think that’s ever that’s ever been president.”