Donald Trump on Wednesday criticized President Joe Biden for comments he made a day earlier calling the former president’s supporters “rubbish.”
It’s the latest twist in heated race-based rhetoric that has taken center stage less than a week before Election Day.
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Biden’s comments, which came at a Latino outreach call in support of Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, were in response to questions about a weekend Trump rally at Madison Square Garden where one of the opening speakers, the comedian Tony Hincliffe referred to Puerto Rico. “Floating Island of Garbage.”
“Joe Biden finally said what he and Kamala really think about our supporters,” Trump said Wednesday during a rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. “He called them ‘garbage,’ and he meant it, although, without question, my supporters are of a higher standard than the crooked, lying ‘Kamla.’
“My answer to Joe and Kamala is simple: You can’t lead America if you don’t love Americans. You simply can’t,” he added.
On Tuesday evening, Biden referred to the Puerto Rican community as “good, decent, honorable people” and added: “The only garbage I see floating around is his supporters. His about Latinos. Satanism is unacceptable, and it’s un-American. It’s the very opposite of what we’ve done.
The White House quickly insisted that Biden was not calling Trump supporters “trash.” He released a transcript that added an epithet to the word “advocates”: “I’m just seeing garbage floating around out there. His supporter — his — his demonization of Latinos is irrational, And that’s un-American.”
Biden also posted a clarification on X, saying he was referring to the “hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico that was spewed by a Trump supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as trash – Which is the only word I can think of to describe it.
“His demonization of Latinos is irrational,” Biden added. “That’s all I’m saying. The comments at this rally do not reflect who we are as a nation.”
Biden’s comments offered a welcome distraction for Trump, who has been under fire for the Garden event, which was filled with a series of crude and racist remarks.
Speakers called Harris a “pimp handler” and “the devil.” Trump’s campaign distanced itself from Hinchcliffe’s comments but otherwise said the New York event was a successful part of his closing message in the final week before Election Day.
During a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, Trump said the Madison Square Garden event was an “absolute love fest,” and sought to dismiss the pushback he received over Hinchcliffe’s comments.
The joke about Puerto Rico, however, has had political consequences for Trump.
Puerto Rican trap and reggaeton singer Nicky Jam said in an Instagram post on Wednesday that he no longer supports Trump after Hinchcliffe’s joke. He said he originally supported the former president because he believed he would be good for the economy.
Biden’s comment, however, gives Trump an easy way to flip the script, as in 2016 when Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton said that “half” of Trump’s supporters belonged in the “basket of regrets.” A phrase that Trump supporters eventually embraced and used as a method. Casting Clinton out of touch.
A Trump campaign official said he plans to use Biden’s comments aggressively to target Democrats.
“We are going to destroy the sun with them,” the official said.
Biden’s comments also threatened to cloud Harris’ rally Tuesday night in which he delivered his closing argument. The massive event was staged on the Alps, where Trump spoke on January 6, 2021, before his supporters stormed the US Capitol.
On Wednesday, Harris was forced to distance himself from Biden’s comments.
“Let me be clear, I don’t agree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for,” he told reporters.