"Garbage" is giving both presidential campaigns a headache. Former President Donald Trump since Sunday has faced backlash over a prominent supporter joking that Puerto Rico was a "floating island of garbage." But President Joe Biden, attempting to criticize Trump for cultivating this kind of rhetoric among his supporters in a call with Latino allies on Tuesday, may have made a stumble of his own.
“Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of garbage,’” Biden said in the video recording, referring to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s comment at the Trump rally in Madison Square Garden. Then, attempting to suggest that Puerto Ricans are "good, decent, honorable people," he appeared to blunder into the controversial comments: "The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American."
The White House sent out its own version of the line in a transcript, adding an apostrophe to “supporters’ ” — a plural possessive that indicates the president was condemning their "demonization of Latinos" rather than the supporters themselves. Later, they sent an updated transcript that changed it again to "supporter's" — a singular possessive that would mean Hinchcliffe's comment. White House officials told news outlets that they had talked to Biden, who confirmed to them he was indeed referring to Hinchcliffe's words, not to Trump supporters as a whole.
Biden, seeking to cool the furor, issued a clarification in an X post shortly afterwards. "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," he wrote. "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."
Vice President Kamala Harris gave her own response Wednesday morning, telling reporters that she wouId "be a president for all Americans, whether you vote for me or not."
"I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for," she said, while noting that Biden had since clarified what he meant.
Trump, who has refused to disavow Hinchcliffe's comments about Puerto Rico (only claiming he didn't know the comedian), maintains his own extensive record of inflammatory, false and dangerous statements, including those calling Democrats “communists,” “fascists” and “far-left lunatics,” and threats to turn the military against his opponents.
After Biden's gaffe, the Trump campaign was eager to turn the tables on Democrats for once. The news broke at a Trump rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, announcing it to a crowd of booing and jeering supporters.
"He's talking about the Border Patrol, he's talking about nurses, he's talking about teachers, he's talking about everyday Americans who love their country and want to dream big again and support you, Mr. President," he said.
Trump, taking the stage afterwards, compared Biden's comments to those of 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who once said with much less spontaneity than Biden that half of Trump's supporters could fit into "a basket of deplorables." While she later said that the other half were people "who feel the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their future, and they're just desperate for change," the damage was done, and she later admitted that her poor choice of words played a role in Trump's victory.
"She said deplorable, and that didn't work out," Trump said. "Garbage, I think, is worse, right? But he doesn't know, you have to please forgive him. Please forgive him, for he not knoweth what he said."
Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, who has called Harris supporters comparing Trump's Madison Square Garden Rally to a 1939 gathering of Nazi supporters there "dipsh**s," wrote in an X post: "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."
Democratic officials also cringed, with Gov. Josh Shapiro, D-Penn., saying on CNN that he "would never insult the good people of Pennsylvania or any Americans even if they chose to support a candidate that I didn’t support" while also noting that when similar or worse comments are made by his own allies, Trump has an "inability to simply say comments like that are wrong, to simply stand up for his fellow Americans."
Former GOP congressman and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough defended Biden on his own show, arguing that Biden's apparent comments do not truly reflect the man who ran in 2020 as a unifier and recently put on a Trump supporter's hat in a moment of levity. Nor, he said, do they reflect what he actually meant to say about Hinchcliffe and "people who support that kind of talk."
He also seemed to agree in substance with Shapiro, pointing out that Trump's allies have consistently brushed off or ignored all the "shocking things" the former president said, while "trying to make a firestorm" out of Biden's remarks. They're also trying to raise some money off of it — hours after Biden's call, the Trump campaign passed around a fundraising email with the subject line: "You are not garbage! I love you! You are the best our nation has to offer."
