WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden took a swipe against Donald Trump\u2019s supporters on Tuesday as he reacted to the Republican presidential nominee\u2019s weekend rally at Madison Square Garden, which was overshadowed by crude and racist rhetoric.
\nIn a call organized by the Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino, Biden responded to a comic at Trump\u2019s rally who called Puerto Rico a \u201cfloating island of garbage.\u201d Biden\u2019s initial comments were garbled.
\n\u201cJust the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage. Well, let me tell you something, I don\u2019t, I don\u2019t know the Puerto Rican that I know, the Puerto Rico where I\u2019m fr \u2014 in my home state of Delaware. They\u2019re good, decent honorable people,\u201d he said.
\nThe president then added: \u201cThe only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it\u2019s un-American. It\u2019s totally contrary to everything we\u2019ve done, everything we\u2019ve been.\u201d
\nWhite House spokesman Andrew Bates said Biden \u201creferred to the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as \u2018garbage.\u2019\u201d
\nIn referring to Trump\u2019s supporters as \u201cgarbage,\u201d Biden\u2019s tone was at odds with the message that Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is seeking to present as she aims to cast a broad appeal, including to disaffected Republicans. Just minutes after Biden\u2019s comments, Harris spoke from the Ellipse in Washington, vowing to be a president who would unite the country.
\n\u201cI pledge to be a president for all Americans,\u201d said Harris, who is Biden\u2019s vice president.
\nRepublicans quickly highlighted Biden\u2019s remark. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio interrupted Trump\u2019s rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to recount what happened.
\n\u201c\u201cMoments ago Joe Biden stated that our supporters, our patriots, are garbage,\u201d Rubio said. \u201dHe\u2019s talking about everyday Americans who love their country.\u201d
\nSome prominent Democrats also began to distance from Biden\u2019s comments. Speaking on CNN, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said he would \u201cnever insult the good people of Pennsylvania or any Americans even if they chose to support a candidate that I didn\u2019t support.\u201d
\nThe comments recalled then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton dismissing Trump supporters during a 2016 fundraiser in New York by saying that half would fit into a \u201d basket of deplorables.\u201d
\nClinton later called that characterization \u201cgrossly generalistic.\u201d But it became a defiant rallying cry for many Trump backers who said the insult encapsulated the elitist attitudes of Clinton and the Democrats.
\nWith Election Day now just a week off, Biden has worked to maintain relevance, furiously promoting his administration\u2019s accomplishments while Harris in her race against Trump.
\nBut his efforts to remain in the political spotlight might not always be so helpful for the top of the Democratic ticket he\u2019s now promoting. That\u2019s because, while Harris has been sharply critical of Trump for months, repeatedly calling him \u201cunstable\u201d and \u201cunhinged\u201d and even suggesting that he was \u201d fascist,\u201d she has been careful not to decry his supporters.
\nIn fact, the vice president has campaigned extensively with former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney and other former GOP elected officials \u2014 hoping to woo conservative crossover voters. The Democratic convention \u2014 and Harris ads \u2014 have highlighted the stories of everyday Americans who talked about having voted for Trump in the past but now say they are supporting the vice president.
\nOn Tuesday\u2019s call, Biden also said that Trump \u201cdoesn\u2019t give a damn about the Latino community\u201d and urged rejection of the former president even as Trump\u2019s campaign says its support is rising among Hispanics, particularly men.
\n\u201cVote to keep Donald Trump out of the White House,\u201d Biden said. \u201cHe\u2019s a true danger to, not just Latinos but to all people. Particularly those who are in a minority in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden took a swipe against Donald Trump\u2019s supporters on Tuesday as he reacted to the Republican presidential nominee\u2019s weekend rally at Madison Square Garden, which was overshadowed by crude and racist rhetoric. In a call organized by the Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino, Biden responded to a comic at Trump\u2019s rally who …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":62564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72256,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72243\/revisions\/72256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}