Did Biden call Trump supporters ‘garbage’? He denied it, but the remark is still causing a big stink for the Kamala Harris campaign. Here are the latest responses to the apostrophe debate, which the Trump campaign quickly framed as “deplorables” 2.0.
Kamala Harris delivered the closing argument of her campaign on Tuesday night, telling about 75,000 people assembled on the Ellipse in Washington that she will work to deliver for everyday Americans, while Donald Trump is a “petty tyrant” who’s “obsessed with revenge.”
But her last major speech of the campaign is being overshadowed by an argument over whether there was an apostrophe in a remark Joe Biden made about Trump supporters on Tuesday night.
“Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of garbage,’” Biden said on a call with the group Voto Latino. “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s — his, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”
The White House claimed Biden said, “his supporter’s demonization,” referring only to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico a “floating pile of garbage” during the Trump rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. But Republicans said Biden’s remark should be interpreted with no apostrophe, meaning he denounced all Trump supporters as “garbage.” The Trump campaign instantly seized on the remark, casting it as a repeat of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 “basket of deplorables” gaffe and attempting to turn the controversy over Hinchcliffe’s racist joke on the Harris campaign.
Here’s a roundup of responses to Biden’s “gaffe” from politicians and commentators.
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The response from Democrats
Biden quickly tried to clean up his remarks, saying in a Tuesday night X post that he was referring to “hateful rhetorical about Puerto Rico” as “garbage,” not Trump supporters:
Harris noted that the president had “clarified his comments” in her response on Wednesday morning, adding that she “strongly” disagrees with criticizing people over which candidate they support.
“Let me be clear: I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for,” she said.
