MAUREEN CALLAHAN: Biden just exposed Kamala’s dirty secret. Now it’s time to take out the real ‘garbage’, America

Talk about an enemy from within!

As Kamala Harris delivered her closing arguments Tuesday night — in the shadow of the White House, the site of Trump’s Jan. 6 speech, to make her case as a unifier — Joe Biden threw a verbal grenade into the heart of her campaign, calling out Trump supporters on ‘waste’.

The damage is inestimable.

It’s Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” moment once again, proof that Democrats have learned nothing since 2016, really don’t care, and have never stopped believing that Trump voters are mouth-breathing racist, fascist, sexist xenophobes.

The only question: Does Biden know what he’s doing?

Seems to me to be increasingly the case. Just as it appears that Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, two of the smartest political strategists of the modern era, have made damaging comments while supporting Kamala.

Would it be surprising if the Dem establishment has conflicted feelings at best about a future President Cackles?

Speaking to Latino voters in a Zoom interview, President Biden jumped on comments made by an offensive comic at Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, calling Puerto Rico “a floating island of trash.”

Now: Was that a clumsy reference to Puerto Rico’s decades-long environmental crisis, caused by floodwaters endangering water, air, soil and wildlife?

Maybe. But it didn’t land that way. That joke—notably championed by no less a progressive icon than Jon Stewart—was too easily read as racist. It was a terrible, unforced error. Trump’s campaign quickly disavowed this.

But here was helpful Old Joe on Tuesday night, speaking from the White House as Harris tried to appear presidential.

“Just recently,” Biden said, “a speaker at [Trump’s] The meeting called Puerto Rico “a floating island of trash.” The only trash I see floating around there are his followers.

It was the silent part that was said out loud again.

The mask slips and slides and does not attach properly. Conservatives don’t express this kind of hatred toward liberals. Confusion, yes. Skepticism, yes. Sure — Trump attacks Democratic elites, the lunatic left, and says a lot of wild things — but you don’t hear him calling Harris’ supporters “trash” or “deplorables.”

Yet Democrats – and their compatriots in the left-wing media – continue to tout themselves as the party of kindness, unity and tolerance, when they are anything but.

In their eyes, anyone who questions transorthodoxy is an inveterate fanatic. Anyone who is not pro-Palestine is a genocidal warmonger. To question unfettered late-term abortions is to deprive women of all their rights. If you want a controlled border, you’re racist.

And if you vote for Trump, you suck.

Never let it be said that Democrats don’t know how to get people to the voting booth.

On Wednesday morning, Harris tried to clean up this mess, speaking — conveniently muffled by the engines of Air Force Two — to the press at Joint Base Andrews.

Has she spoken to President Biden since his comments?

“He called me last night,” she said, “but this didn’t come up.”

Is she joking? Her own ‘October surprise’ was not discussed?

Just when you think Harris can’t get more authentic, she outdoes herself. It’s really the only thing she’s good at.

Why not express your anger, disgust and emotion? Why not make a sincere effort to speak to undecided people who are undoubtedly leaning toward Trump right now?

On the other hand, this is a woman who constantly praises “Dougie,” the troublesome husband who allegedly beat an ex-girlfriend and got the nanny pregnant. Perhaps Kamala Harris is well-versed in excusing bad behavior—harmful, catastrophic behavior—from the men in her life.

Asked whether Trump voters would find Biden’s comments offensive, Harris said, “I’m running for president of the United States” — we know that — “talking to the American people… to lift them up around their ambitions, their ambitions and their dreams.’

This again? Unreal.

How come none of her speechwriters, none of those ex-Obama geniuses, can give her a pithy response?

Whether animated by fear, incompetence, or laziness, Harris continues to subscribe to one truth: she is not up to the task.

Sure — Trump attacks Democratic elites, the lunatic left, and says a lot of wild things — but you don’t hear him calling Harris’ supporters “trash” or “deplorables.”

Perhaps this is why Bill Clinton, who certainly knows better, gave in – while coming out with Kamala! – that Laken Riley, the 22-year-old nursing student killed by an illegal immigrant, would likely still be alive if the Biden-Harris administration had ‘accounted for’ the more than ten million migrants (probably more) who have crossed the border vetted’ border over the past four years.

Or why Barack Obama harassed black male voters who, in his opinion, “don’t like the idea of ​​having a woman as president.”

In the wake of Biden’s trash talk, the White House was in turmoil. First, they released a transcript that changed the word “supporters” to “supporters” – an unethical change to a sitting president’s comments.

Aides then furiously contacted editors, including the Mail, and “checked” whether the editors had the official statement from the White House.

And of course, the left-leaning media quickly aligned. Here’s the lead from the New York Times report, updated at 1:20 a.m. Wednesday:

“Donald J. Trump and his allies are trying to recreate a moment that deeply resonated with his supporters in the 2016 campaign: when Hillary Clinton called Trump’s supporters a ‘basket of deplorables.’

So you see: Biden’s comments are Trump’s fault!

This is why Harris cannot break 50 percent in the polls. This is why traditional media is dying.

If you tell people that what they saw and heard is not in fact what they saw and heard, you have lost. If you tell people they’re too stupid to trust their own sensory input, same thing.

And if your outgoing president is still bitter about his ouster — while, according to Axios this weekend, his offers to help the Harris campaign are routinely rebuffed — well, you might agree with your opponent: There’s indeed an enemy within him .

And his name is Joe Biden.