Biden moves to calm outcry after seemingly calling Trump supporters ‘garbage’

United States President Joe Biden recently issued a clarification after comments made during a livestream with the advocacy group Voto Latino appeared to describe supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as "garbage."

Biden attempted to denounce the rhetoric at a recent Trump rally at Madison Square Garden, which was criticised as racist and misogynistic, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

“Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage,” Biden said in the livestream, before proceeding to call Puerto Ricans “good, decent, honourable people”.

Then, he added, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s — his hatred — his demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”

The episode was immediately seized upon by leading Republicans, including Trump, who interpreted the statement as an insult towards the average conservative voter.

Some drew parallels to Democrat Hillary Clinton, who called Trump’s supporters “deplorables” during her bid for the presidency in 2016.

But Biden and his team have since issued statements, seeking to clarify that his remarks applied only to the Madison Square Garden speaker, Trump supporter and comedian Tony Hinchcliffe.

The White House spokesman Andrew Bates quickly dismissed the notion that Biden was referring to Trump supporters.

The Democratic president, Bates said, “referred to the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as garbage” — not the voters.

In a transcript the White House released, the word “supporter’s” was a singular possessive, in seeming reference to Hinchcliffe, as opposed to the plural noun “supporters”.

Shortly afterwards, Biden also posted on the social media platform X to address the issue.

“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,” he wrote.

“His demonisation 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.”

For many Democrats, the scrutiny on Biden’s remarks was yet another reflection of his tendency to mangle his words or get information mixed up.

News.Az