Republican presidential candidate says ‘250 million Americans are not garbage’ as he capitalises on latest twist in Puerto Rico debate
Dressing like a sanitation worker and, at one point, appearing in the cab of a garbage truck, Donald Trump sought to convince voters in battleground state Wisconsin on Wednesday that Democrats believe those who vote for him are “garbage”.
The theatrics came in response to an apparent verbal gaffe made by Joe Biden the night before, which the president said was intended to condemn a comedian over his racist remarks at a massive rally Trump staged at New York City’s Madison Square Garden over the weekend.
But Trump and his allies have seized on Biden’s words to argue Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is insincere in her pledge to be a president for all Americans, even those who do not vote for her. In a visit to the city of Green Bay, which sits in a Republican-leaning region of a swing state that polls show is anyone’s to win, Trump hammered the point home by eschewing his normal suit jacket and donning a reflective orange vest for a speech to an arena packed with his red-hatted supporters.
“I have to begin by saying 250 million Americans are not garbage,” Trump said at the start of his nearly 90-minute speech. He did not specify how he arrived at the 250 million number, but it appears to be the approximate entire population of the United States minus those who voted for Biden in 2020.
“This week, Kamala has been comparing her political opponents to the most evil mass murderers in history, and now, speaking on a call for her campaign last night, crooked Joe Biden finally said what he and Kamala really think of our supporters. He called them garbage. No way!”
Biden’s gaffe, one of many he has made in his nearly four years in office, threatens to complicate Harris’s campaign, after her effort to win over Latino voters was reinvigorated by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s comment at Sunday’s Madison Square Garden rally that the US territory of Puerto Rico is “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean”.
