Bill Maher has warned that Joe Biden calling Trump supporters “trash” was a “bigger blunder than people think.”
Biden made the controversial comments after insult comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating trash island” during Donald Trump’s raucous rally at Madison Square Garden last Sunday.
The president told a group of Latino voters on a Zoom outreach call, “The only trash I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and un-American.”
Biden has said he only wanted to call Hinchcliffe “trash,” and not Trump supporters in general. This is something his administration has repeated, even to the point that White House press officials changed the official transcript of his remarks to better reflect what Biden supposedly meant to say.
But Maher says the damage has already been done, saying Biden’s comments were worse than when Hillary Clinton called half of Trump supporters “deplorables” in the 2016 election.
Bill Maher criticized Joe Biden for his comments labeling Trump supporters as ‘trash’, saying they were worse than Hillary Clinton calling half of the MAGA ‘deplorables’
Joe Biden, who made the inflammatory comments during a Zoom call with Latino voters, has tried to walk back what he said
“I feel like it embodies everything the Trump people hate about Democrats,” Maher said. “It’s like ‘deplorables’ times ten.”
Trump himself agrees with Maher on this point, telling supporters at a rally in Pennsylvania last week that the “garbage” comment trumps Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” analogy.
Maher also found it humorous that Biden may have given up the perceived advantage Democrats had after Trump’s rally in New York City, because in the immediate aftermath all the backlash had to do with Hinchcliffe’s joke about Puerto Rico.
Although mainland Puerto Ricans cannot vote in the presidential election, there are 580,000 Latinos in Pennsylvania who can vote this cycle, most of whom are Puerto Rican.
Pennsylvania remains one of the states closest to Trump and Kamala Harris.
“The result could be that Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania win this election for Harris,” Maher said. “Or it could be the other way around.”
He even compared Biden to Aaron Judge, an outfielder with the New York Yankees who made a crucial mistake that some say led to their World Series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Biden had responded to a joke by Tony Hinchcliffe at a Trump rally calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of trash”
Maher’s guests — Tim Miller, left, and Michael Moynihan — disagreed about the potential impact Biden’s comments will have on the election
“It’s so funny, Joe Biden, his whole career he was like Mr. Cool, and then here at the very end – he’s like Aaron Judge in Game Six. He just muffled the fly ball and at the end of the thing, and blew the whole thing [game]Maher said.
Michael Moynihan, co-host of The Fifth Column podcast, who was on Maher’s panel, agreed with the liberal host that what Biden said will hurt Harris’ prospects.
Moynihan said the Trump voters he has spoken to already assume the media and “elites” hate them and what Biden said only reinforces that belief.
Tim Miller, a libertarian commentator at The Bulwark, disagreed that Biden’s comments will result in Harris losing the White House.
He said he thought it was a “wash” after Trump decided to hit back at Biden by arriving in a garbage truck last week while wearing a bright orange vest.
“I don’t know if it’s a positive on balance, but if the older president gives a marble-mouthed answer, it produces an older competitor who dresses up like an oompa-loompa garbage collector,” Miller said. “That’s quite a wash for me.”
‘What do you think of my garbage truck? This truck is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden,” he told reporters in Green Bay, Wisconsin
Trump showed up at a rally in Wisconsin last week in a garbage truck while wearing a bright orange vest to troll Biden
Both Donald Trump Jr. as Megyn Kelly followed in Trump’s footsteps and stepped up the attack on Biden by dressing up as trash for Halloween
Trump apparently inspired other conservatives to get involved in the “garbage attack,” including his own son.
Donald Trump Jr. and podcast host Megyn Kelly both decided to wear trash bags as costumes for Halloween.
Maher then returned to the origin of this saga: Hinchcliffe himself. As a comedian, Maher defended him and worried that the Democrats would appear thin-skinned for attacking him so vigorously.
“Did the Democrats seem weak because they can’t take a joke?” Maher asked. “Because I think that’s another Achilles heel that they have.”
Harris’ running mate Tim Walz and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were among many Democrats who condemned the joke.
“Look, I have to defend my profession,” Maher added. ‘I’m a comedian. I am an absolutist of freedom of speech. This was insulting. But this guy is an insult comedian.”