Kamala Harris Wednesday sought to distance herself from President Biden’s controversial remarks that Republicans claim labeled their supporters as “garbage.”
” I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for,” said Harris, adding that she hasn’t talked to Biden about the controversy. “I will be a president for all Americans whether you vote for me or not.”
Vice presidential nominee Tim Walz echoed Biden’s own clarification that the “garbage” remark was a reference only to the comedian who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” at former President Trump’s stormy Madison Square Garden rally over the weekend.
“President Biden was very clear that he’s speaking about the rhetoric we heard,” Walz said.
Walz added that Harris is the nominee who “makes the message,” effectively distancing the ticket from Biden a bit in the closing week of the campaign.
“The vice president and I have made it absolutely clear that we want everyone as a part of this,” Walz said on ABC News.
Biden made the controversial “garbage” remark during a Zoom call with Latino leaders Tuesday.
He said: “the only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s… his … his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable,” according to a White House transcript that was amended to add the apostrophe in “supporter’s” after it initially read “supporters.”
Republicans quickly pounced on the comments, arguing Biden was referring to Trump supporters, plural, as “garbage.”
They compared the remarks to Hillary Clinton’s infamous 2016 attack on MAGA loyalists as a “basket of deplorables,” a comment many credited with solidifying support for Trump ahead of his victory in that election.
Biden quickly clarified that he was only referring to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe who made the hateful jokes at the MSG rally, not Trump supporters as a whole.
“That’s all I meant to say,” Biden tweeted.
Democrats were hoping to quickly put the controversy over Biden’s remarks behind them, especially since they want to keep Trump on the political hot seat for his refusal to apologize for the insults at his rally, which targeted Puerto Ricans as well as other Latinos and Blacks.
With early voting in full swing and Election Day looming on Tuesday, the remarks could swing Latino voters against Trump in some of the seven battleground states, especially Pennsylvania, the single most pivotal swing state.
An outsized 4% share of the Keystone State’s voters are Latino and about half of those are of Puerto Rican descent, a potent voting bloc.
Trump, who hopes to improve his support among Latinos, failed to apologize or even mention the controversy in a speech in the Latino-heavy city of Allentown, Pennsylvania.
He appeared to shrug off the outrage felt by many Puerto Ricans when he told Fox News, “I can’t imagine it’s a big deal.”
