President Joe Biden called Trump supporters “garbage” during a campaign call just one week from Election Day on Tuesday night.
According to Gabe Gutierrez, senior White House correspondent for NBC News, Biden said, “Donald Trump has no character. He doesn’t give a d-mn about the Latino community.”
In a video shared by Sky News on X, formerly Twitter, Biden added, “Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage.” The president, who was referencing comments made by an insult comedian at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday in New York City, defended the people of Puerto Rico as “good, decent, honorable people.”
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” Biden continued. “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”
After being informed of Biden’s comments by Sen. Marco Rubio during a rally at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Trump said, “Wow. That’s terrible.” The 45th president then reminded the crowd of former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s description of Trump supporters as “deplorable” and “irredeemable” just prior to the 2016 election.
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“That didn’t work out. Garbage, I think, is worse. But he doesn’t know. You have to please forgive him,” Trump said. “Please forgive him for he not knoweth what he said. These people… terrible, terrible, terrible to say a thing like that. But he really doesn’t know. He really honestly, he doesn’t. And I’m convinced that he likes me more than he likes Kamala. But that’s a terrible thing.”
Following major backlash against labeling Trump supporters as “garbage,” Biden attempted to clarify his statement, tweeting, “Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage—which is the only word I can think of to describe it. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation.”
In a statement on Truth Social, Trump claimed that while he is “running a campaign of positive solutions to save America,” Vice President Kamala Harris is “running a campaign of hate.” The former president added that Harris has spent the past week comparing Republicans to “the most evil mass murders in history”
“Now, on top of everything, Joe Biden calls our supporters ‘garbage,'” Trump said. “You can’t lead America if you don’t love the American People. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have shown they are both unfit to be President of the United States.”
