Joe Biden calls Donald Trump supporters 'garbage' in 'huge assist' to Republicans

Joe Biden faces a backlash this week, after labelling MAGA supporters as 'garbage'. The president explains it was said in reference "to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico”

Kamala Harris’s campaign is in damage control mode after Joe Biden referred to Donald Trump’s supporters as “garbage”. Senior Democrats moved to distance themselves from the President’s remarks, as the Trump campaign immediately sought to capitalise.

It brought back uncomfortable memories of 2016, when Hillary Clinton referred to Trump voters as “deplorables” – a key moment in the right-wing tycoon’s successful election campaign.

The Republican candidate’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said: “There’s no way to spin it: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris don’t just hate Trump, they despise the tens of millions of Americans who support him.”

And Florida senator Marco Rubio told a Trump rally in Pennsylvania: “Joe Biden stated that our supporters, our patriots, are garbage. He’s talking about Americans who love their country.”

The state’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, said: “I would never insult the people of Pennsylvania or any Americans if they chose to support a candidate that I didn’t support.”

In Washington, Harris told a gathering of 75,000 supporters she would be a president for all Americans. “Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy,” she said.

“He wants to put them in jail. I’ll give them a seat at the table.” She was speaking at the Ellipse, the site of Trump’s “stop the steal” rally on January 6, 2021, which led to the Capitol riots.

The vice president also vowed to take action against high grocery prices and help first-time home buyers with making a down payment. While Harris has been sharply critical of Trump for months, she has been careful not to decry his supporters.

She has campaigned with ex-representative Liz Cheney and other former Republican elected officials, hoping to woo moderate Republicans. The Democrats have highlighted the stories of everyday Americans who talked about having voted for Trump in the past but now say they are supporting Harris.

But the campaign now fears Biden may have jeopardised their attempts to win hearts and minds. The outgoing president was reacting to Trump’s rally in New York at the weekend, in particular a joke made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe.

He called Puerto Rico – a US territory whose citizens serve in the US military but cannot vote in elections – as “a floating island of garbage”. Biden said: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”

The president added: “His demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”

White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Biden was specifically referring to the people responsible for the hateful rhetoric at the event, in New York’s Madison Square Garden. Biden, who stepped down in favour of Harris amid concerns about his mental state, reiterated that the rhetoric was the target of his comment.

He added: “It is the only word I can think of to describe it. “The demonisation 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, many believed Biden may have handed a huge assist to Trump, who had been forced on to the defensive after the rally.
On Tuesday’s call, Biden also said that Trump “doesn’t give a damn about the Latino community” and urged rejection of the former president even as his campaign says its support is rising among Hispanics, particularly men.

“Vote to keep Donald Trump out of the White House,” Biden said. He’s a true danger to, not just Latinos but to all people. Particularly those who are in a minority in this country.”