Former President Donald Trump attacked President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at his rally in North Carolina on Wednesday, saying the leader of the U.S. should not “hate the American people.”
“Joe Biden finally said what he really thinks of our supporters. He called them ’garbage.’ And they mean it. Even though, without question, my supporters are far higher-quality than crooked Joe’s or Lyin’ Kamala,” Mr. Trump told the audience at his rally in Rocky Mount.
“My response to Joe and Kamala is very simple: You can’t lead America if you don’t love Americans. You just can’t,” he said. “You can’t be president if you hate the American people, and there’s a lot of hatred.”
He also said Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris have treated his supporters and the country like garbage.
“The truth is they’ve treated our whole country like garbage whether they meant to or not, because they’re grossly incompetent people and they’ve destroyed our country,” he said.
He said inflation and illegal immigration have taken over the country.
The “garbage” rhetoric started after comedian Tony Hinchcliffe quipped about Puerto Rico during the Trump rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
“There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now — I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” he said.
Responding to the comment in a call, Mr. Biden referred to Mr. Trump’s supporters as garbage — a comment that has been decried by the campaign and other Republicans.
Ms. Harris tried to distance herself from both comments Wednesday.
“I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for,” she said to reporters before flying to North Carolina for her own campaign rally.
Mr. Trump bashed Democrats for the vitriol against him and his supporters.
“For the past nine years, Kamala and her party have called us racists, bigots, fascists, ’deplorables,’ irredeemables, Nazis and they’ve called me Hitler,” he said.
He said his father always told him to never use the word Nazi or mention Hitler.
“Now we’re called Nazis and I’m called Hitler. I’m not Hitler,” Mr. Trump said. “… [My father] is looking down now, he’s saying, ’Can you imagine, that’s what they’re calling my son. I told him for years literally never use the term Nazi or Hitler.’”
“Now they’re using it on us. It’s unbelievable,” the GOP nominee told his supporters. “They’ve bullied you, they’ve demeaned us, they’ve demonized us and censored us and de-platformed us and weaponized the power of our own government against us. They’ve gone after their political opponent — me. It’s unbelievable.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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