Did Biden really call Trump Supporters garbage?
Trump supporters seize on Biden’s garbage comments
President Joe Biden is facing a backlash after he appeared to label supporters of Donald Trump as “garbage.” This incident occurred during a virtual event with the advocacy organization Voto Latino, where Biden criticized comments made at a Trump rally that referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.” He stated, “The only trash I see floating around is his supporters,” in reference to Trump’s rhetoric against Latinos, which he deemed “unconscionable” and “un-American”
Trump supporters seize on Biden’s garbage comments
Donald Trump’s supporters are seizing on comments made by President Joe Biden, whom they said called them garbage, while Biden said he was referring to the demonisation of Puerto Ricans.
The controversy on Tuesday came days before the Nov. 5 presidential election in which Biden’s Vice President Kamala Harris faces Trump.
In the conversation, a transcript of which the White House released, Biden referred of a comedian at a Trump rally who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.’’
Biden said: “the only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters, his demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.
“It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been,’’ according to the transcript.
Trump’s camp quoted Biden as saying: “the only trashes I see floating around are his supporters,’’ though the official transcript shows the sentence extending further.
Biden reportedly was referring not to the supporters but to the demonisation of Latinos as trash. (dpa/NAN)
Following the uproar, Biden’s team quickly clarified that his comments were not aimed at all Trump supporters but were specifically directed at a speaker from the rally who made derogatory remarks about Puerto Rico. White House Press Secretary Andrew Bates emphasized that Biden was condemning the hateful rhetoric rather than generalizing about Trump’s supporters.
Biden himself took to social media to reiterate that his remarks were intended to criticize the offensive language used at the rally and not to insult all of Trump’s followers.
The situation has drawn comparisons to Hillary Clinton’s infamous “basket of deplorables” comment from 2016, which similarly provoked outrage among Trump supporters. Republicans have seized on this incident to argue that Biden and Democrats harbor disdain for a significant portion of the American electorate
White House responds
The White House spokesman Andrew Bates quickly dismissed the notion 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 the voters.
In a transcript the White House released, the word “supporter’s” was a singular possessive, in seeming reference to Hinchcliffe, as opposed to the plural noun “supporters”
