Former President Donald Trump called out Democrats’ rancor and Vice President Kamala Harris shifted into damage control on Wednesday after President Biden called Republican voters “garbage.”
Mr. Biden’s disparaging remark alienated roughly half of the U.S. electorate and dominated the presidential campaigns just days before the election.
At a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Mr. Trump walked onto the stage wearing a garbageman-style reflective orange vest over his shirt and dumping his usual blue suit. He also briefly sat in a garbage truck decorated in Trump campaign logos at the airport.
“I have to begin by saying, 250 million Americans are not garbage,” Mr. Trump told the roaring crowd before recounting the challenges of getting into the huge vehicle and joking about how the new outfit makes him look thinner.
Earlier, he told a rally in Rocky Point, North Carolina, that “Joe Biden finally said what he really thinks of our supporters. He called them ‘garbage.’ And they mean it.”
“My response to Joe and Kamala is very simple: You can’t lead America if you don’t love Americans. You just can’t,” the former president said there. “You can’t be president if you hate the American people, and there’s a lot of hatred.”
About 60 miles away in Raleigh, Ms. Harris was in the awkward position of trying to distance herself from her boss. She spent nearly half of her 15-minute remarks discussing unity, a message damaged by Mr. Biden.
“I pledge to seek common ground and common-sense solutions to the challenges you face,” the vice president said. “I’m looking to make progress, and I pledge to you I will listen to experts. I will listen to those impacted by the decisions I make and to the people who disagree with me.”
Ms. Harris told the crowd that it was Mr. Trump who was promoting divisiveness while she sought unity and bipartisanship.
“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy. He wants to put them in jail. I’ll give them a seat at the table,” she said.
Mr. Biden’s remark Tuesday night during a conference call with Hispanic voters overshadowed Ms. Harris’ massive campaign rally on the Ellipse near the White House. At the rally, she alternated between calls for unity and disparaging Mr. Trump.
Garbagegate also fueled Mr. Trump’s criticism that the president and Ms. Harris are condescending Democratic elites disdainful of ordinary Americans.
SEE ALSO: Vulnerable Democrat Rep. Jared Golden blasts Biden’s ‘garbage’ shot
The fallout was so catastrophic that downballot Democrats condemned the president’s remark.
“Any elected official or candidate who calls Americans or America ‘garbage’ is flat out wrong,” Rep. Jared Golden, Maine Democrat, wrote on X. “We don’t need leaders to add fuel to partisan fires that are dividing us.”
Mr. Golden is locked in a tight race for a fourth term in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District against Republican state Rep. Austin Theriault, a former NASCAR driver. The race is considered a toss-up.
He wasn’t the only Democrat running away from Mr. Biden. Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, who is running for U.S. Senate, called the garbage talk “inappropriate.”
“He shouldn’t have said it,” she said on a Michigan radio station.
Mr. Biden touched off a political firestorm when he angrily spoke out against a joke made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at a Trump rally Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
At the event, Mr. Hinchcliffe joked that Puerto Rico was “a floating island of garbage.”
On Tuesday evening, Mr. Biden hosted a video call for Hispanic video outreach and maligned Trump supporters.
“They’re good, decent, honorable people,” the president said, referring to Puerto Ricans. “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
Mr. Biden’s quip ripped through the political scene and diffused some of the outrage over Mr. Hinchcliffe’s joke, which threatened to alienate Puerto Rican voters and potentially other Hispanic voters.
Mr. Trump had distanced himself from Mr. Hinchcliffe, saying he didn’t know him. The Trump campaign said the “joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
Still, Mr. Trump suffered a backlash. On Wednesday, Puerto Rican reggaeton singer Nicky Jam withdrew his endorsement of Mr. Trump.
On the other side of the garbage fight, the White House offered shifting explanations for Mr. Biden’s words. The explanations included condemning Mr. Hinchcliffe and Mr. Trump’s rhetoric before blaming the comment on a misplaced apostrophe.
The White House released a transcript to show that Mr. Biden was not condemning Trump supporters as “garbage.” The transcript added an apostrophe — supporter’s — to indicate Mr. Biden was calling only a single supporter “garbage.” That would be Mr. Hinchcliffe.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later insisted that Mr. Biden didn’t trash all of Mr. Trump’s supporters.
“Just to clarify, he was not calling Trump supporters garbage,” Ms. Jean-Pierre told reporters at the daily press briefing. “He does not view Trump supporters or anybody who supports Trump as garbage.”
The controversy explains why Mr. Biden has been sidelined for much of the election since bowing out in July. Since Ms. Harris replaced him on the ticket, he has appeared at only one campaign event with her.
• Seth McLaughlin in Green Bay, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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