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The White House has made efforts to clarify President Biden’s recent remarks after he sparked controversy by labeling supporters of former President Trump as “garbage.”
During a virtual campaign event with Vice President Kamala Harris and Voto Latino, Biden criticized Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden, which gained attention due to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s offensive jokes that targeted various ethnic groups, including a comment about Puerto Rico being a “floating island of garbage.”
Biden stated, “The only trash I see out there is his supporters.” He further condemned Trump’s rhetoric towards Latinos as ”unconscionable and un-American.”
This incident drew parallels to Hillary Clinton’s infamous 2016 remark about Trump supporters being part of a “basket of deplorables,” which many viewed as detrimental to her campaign.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates explained to Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich that Biden was referring specifically to the hateful language used at the Madison Square Garden event.
“The president was addressing a joke made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe who compared Puerto Rico to an island filled with ‘garbage’,” Bates clarified.
The White House had previously informed NBC News that Biden’s comments were directed at Hinchcliffe rather than Trump’s followers.
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Biden later attempted to clarify his statements further, asserting that he was denouncing Hinchcliffe’s remarks rather than disparaging Trump supporters directly.
“Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric regarding Puerto Rico expressed by Trump’s followers at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage—which is the most fitting term I could find,” Biden posted on X (formerly Twitter). “His demonization of Latinos is unacceptable; that’s all I intended to convey. The comments from that rally do not represent our nation’s values.”
At a campaign gathering in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) seized upon Biden’s words as significant news and told attendees that the president had dismissed countless ordinary Americans as “garbage.”
The National Press Secretary for Trump’s campaign, Karoline Leavitt, issued a statement claiming that both Biden and Harris harbor disdain for millions who support him.
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“There’s no way around it: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris don’t just oppose President Trump; they hold contempt for tens of millions of Americans who back him,” she stated in her release.
Backlash against these comments emerged from both political parties; even Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro criticized them.
“I’m sharing my immediate reaction here,” he told Fox News Radio Political Analyst Josh Kraushaar on Tuesday. “I would never insult decent people in Pennsylvania or any Americans simply because they support someone different than me.”
This report includes contributions from Joseph Wulfsohn of Fox News Digital.
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