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A clip of U.S. President Joe Biden speaking in a video call with Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino on Tuesday has gone viral because of a comment he made in which he appeared to liken Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s supporters to “garbage.”
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American,” Mr. Biden appeared to say. (The White House disputes a key detail of this quote. More on that below.) “It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”
Mr. Biden’s comment Tuesday was part of a longer statement critical of Mr. Trump and a speaker at the weekend rally for the candidate at Madison Square Garden. The gaffe has given Republicans a grievance with which to motivate their base, unsettling Democrats in the final days before the Nov. 5 election.
Why the focus on the word ‘garbage’
Tony Hinchcliffe speaks at the Trump campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 27.Evan Vucci/The Associated Press
On Sunday, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe spoke at the Trump rally at Madison Square Garden and made the comment, “I don’t know if you guys 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.”
Mr. Hinchcliffe’s comment about the U.S. territory was widely condemned, including by Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, and by members of the Puerto Rican diaspora and Hispanic community in the United States.
“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” a Trump campaign adviser said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Mr. Biden’s comment appeared to offer a change of focus from Puerto Rico, and from criticism of other comments made at the Madison Square Garden rally, where several allies of Mr. Trump lobbed crude and racist insults at Ms. Harris and other critics of the former president.
Biden and White House issue clarifications
Later on Tuesday, Mr. Biden posted a statement on X saying his comment was directed at Mr. Hinchcliffe.
The White House released a transcript of Mr. Biden’s comment which included an apostrophe on the word “supporters.” The White House said in a statement that Mr. Biden had actually said “supporter’s,” and that he was referring only to Mr. Hinchcliffe, not Mr. Trump’s entire base. In the video, Mr. Biden sounded as if he had finished one sentence with the word “supporters” before starting a new sentence on the “demonization of Latinos.”
Two Republican members of Congress accused the White House of releasing an incorrect transcript of Mr. Biden’s comment. Other Republican politicians and supporters have been highly critical of Mr. Biden’s gaffe.
The White House also said that the president’s comment about “garbage” was a reference to rhetoric from Trump allies, not the candidate’s supporters themselves. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Mr. Biden “does not view Trump supporters or anybody who supports Trump as garbage.”
Harris and Trump respond
Ms. Harris said at a campaign event in Pennsylvania on Wednesday that Americans need to “stop pointing fingers and to start locking arms,” in an attempt to push past the president’s comment. “We know we have an opportunity in this election to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump, who has been trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other.”
Kamala Harris told reporters on Wednesday she disagrees “'with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.'
The Associated Press
Apparently seeking to capitalize on Mr. Biden’s comment, Mr. Trump on Wednesday drove a garbage truck with American flags and Trump campaign signage in a photo-op at a Wisconsin airport.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump sits in a garbage truck in Green Bay, Wis. on Oct. 30.Julia Demaree Nikhinson/The Associated Press
With a report from the Associated Press