US president Biden calls Trump supporters “garbage”; Harris distances self

US president Joe Biden sparked a controversy when he compared supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to “garbage”.

Biden was commenting on a racist joke a comedian made at a Trump rally days earlier, likening Puerto Rico to an “island of garbage.”

“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,” Biden said in his remarks on a campaign call for Latino voters on Tuesday, 29 October.

“Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of garbage’.  Well, let me tell you something... in my home state of Delaware, [Puerto Ricans are] good, decent, honourable people,” he said.

Republican senator Marco Rubio raised this issue in front of thousands of Trump supporters in Allentown, Pennsylvania, as well.

Trump, a former president himself, was also quick to condemn it.

Trump, who was holding a rally in Allentown, also described Biden’s remarks as “terrible”, and likened them to Hillary Clinton’s comments calling some of Trump’s supporters “deplorables” in 2016. 

“So, you have to remember Hillary [Clinton] — she said ‘deplorable’ and then she said ‘irredeemable’,” Trump said. “‘Garbage’ I think is worse.”

Damage control

In a damage control exercise, Biden later tried to explain his remarks on X.

‘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,’ Biden wrote.

‘His 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,’ Biden said.

Trump’s running mate, Ohio senator J.D. Vance described Biden’s remark as disgusting.

‘This is disgusting. Kamala Harris and her boss Joe Biden are attacking half of the country,’ he wrote on X.

‘There’s no excuse for this. I hope Americans reject it,’ he added.

Karoline Leavitt, the Trump Campaign’s national press secretary, said in a statement that Trump is backed by Latinos, Black voters, union workers, law enforcement officers, border patrol agents and Americans of all faiths.

“(Kamala) Harris, (Tim) Walz and Biden have labelled these great Americans as fascists, Nazis, and now, garbage,” Leavitt said.

“There’s no way to spin it: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris don’t just hate President Trump, they despise the tens of millions of Americans who support him. Kamala does not deserve four more years. President Trump will be a president for all Americans,” she said. 

Harris’ separate stance

Biden’s remarks came as Democratic presidential nominee and US vice president Kamala Harris delivered a speech in Washington DC about her desire to move the United States past an era of divisive rhetoric and name-calling, to one marked by unity and compromise.

Harris parted with Biden in her closing remarks, promising a “protective presidency”.

The Democratic Party presidential candidate said that although she was proud of being President Joe Biden's vice president, her presidency will be different — because the challenges are different.

Offering her campaign's closing argument on Tuesday from the Ellipse, a portion of the Capitol grounds that hosted President Donald Trump’s rally of 2020 that led to a raid by his supporters on the US Congress, Harris presented herself as someone who feels protective about people who are treated unfairly and taken advantage of, saying that that’s something she got from her mother, the India-born Shyamala Gopalan Harris.

Harris also presented herself as an “uniter” in contrast to Trump, who, she said, is a “divider”; as a “champion of working people”, compared to the former president who, she said, would “give tax breaks to the wealthy”; as one of the “fierce protectors” of the security of the country, compared to the former president, who, she said, is “vulnerable to flattery and favours”.

“I have been honoured to serve as Joe Biden’s vice president,” Harris said, “but I will bring my own experiences and ideas to the Oval Office. My presidency will be different, because the challenges we face are different.”

“Our top priority as a nation four years ago was to end the pandemic and rescue the economy. Now our biggest challenge is to lower costs, costs that were rising even before the pandemic, and that are still too high,” she continued.

Trump and his campaign have sought to attach Harris to the failures and shortcomings of the administration of Biden. Meanwhile, Harris has struggled to distance herself from the current president without looking disloyal.

But her campaign has finally shown a readiness to put some distance between the two and, as a result, they have not appeared in joint rallies — although Harris has done quite a few appearances with former president Barack Obama.

Harris acknowledged that not many Americans would know her because of her long career outside Washington D.C. And recalling her career as a line prosecutor and then top law officer of the most populous state of the country (California), she said, “I did this work because for as long as I can remember, I have always had an instinct to protect. There’s something about people being treated unfairly or overlooked that, frankly, just gets to me. I don't like it.”

“It’s what my mother instilled in me, a drive to hold accountable those who use their wealth or power to take advantage of other people, the drive to protect hard-working Americans who aren’t always seen or heard and deserve a voice. And I will tell you, that is the kind of president I will be,” Harris said.

In a speech lasting nearly 30 minutes, Harris stressed the contrast between herself and Trump on everything from basic values to vision for the country and foreign policy.

“World leaders think that Donald Trump is an easy mark, easy to manipulate with flattery or favour, and you can believe that autocrats like (Russian president Vladimir) Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong (Un) are rooting for him in this election,” she continued.

“I will always uphold our security, advance our national interest, and ensure that the United States of America remains — as we must forever be — a champion of liberty around the world,” she closed.