White House tries to cover up Biden calling Trump supporters ‘garbage’ in speech transcript as it frantically tries to limit damage to Harris campaign

The White House panicked on Tuesday evening after President Biden called Donald Trump’s supporters “trash.”

The president was speaking to a Latino advocacy group when he made the stupid blunder that immediately drew comparisons to Hillary Clinton’s infamous dismissal of Trump voters as “deplorables” in 2016.

“Recently, a speaker at his (Trump) rally called Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of trash,’” Biden repeated to a Latino advocacy group.

“The only trash I see floating out there is his supporters, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and un-American. It’s completely at odds with everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”

In a desperate attempt to clean up the 81-year-old president’s mess, a White House spokesperson added an apostrophe to the word “supporter” to imply that Biden was referring to only one person.

The damage control statement noted that Biden only referred to one supporter: comedian Tony Hinchcliffe joking that Puerto Rico is an “island of trash.”

“Earlier today, I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by the Trump supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as trash — and that’s the only word I can think of to describe it,” Biden said in his own clean-up statement.

“His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I wanted to say. The comments at that meeting do not reflect who we are as a nation.”

However, people on both sides of the aisle were perplexed or outraged by the president’s statement.

Trump seized on Biden’s comment, declaring it was “worse” than what Clinton said eight years ago, and Democrats immediately began distancing themselves from the president.

His running mate, JD Vance, tweeted angrily about the incident, writing, “A mother mourning her son who died of a fentanyl overdose is not bullshit. A truck driver who cannot afford rising diesel prices is not trash. A father willing to pay for groceries isn’t shit.’

“Kamala Harris and Joe Biden should be ashamed of themselves,” he added.

Trump’s social media account during the campaign posted the video and noted, “If Joe wakes up and wonders why his intern tweeted this, we’ll leave this here as a reminder.”

Even some liberals were outraged by Biden’s comments.

“As leader of the Democratic Party, President Biden had ONE job tonight: STFU and let the current nominee own the news cycle. No matter how you interpret his words, he failed,” wrote Leah McElrath.

It came as Harris hoped to capture the nation’s full attention with a carefully planned rally in front of the White House for 75,000 Democrats a week before Election Day. Harris used the event to make her final case for why she should be elected president.

New York Magazine writer Jonathan Chait added: “I think Biden was trying to describe the speaker’s comment, and not all Trump supporters, as nonsense. I also think Biden should stay away from cameras and media, but his ego won’t allow that.’

Poll aggregator and author Nate Silver went a step further, suggesting the comments made Biden unfit to continue his lame duck term.

“The fact that he cannot consistently speak clearly and with reasonable understanding may also seem to imply that he should not be the President of the United States,” the author of Signal and the Noise wrote.

One journalist, John Harwood, tried to quell anger at Biden by “calling the false outrage over Biden’s comment nonsense.”

When Biden’s comment emerged, Trump was at a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania. While he was still on stage, he was told about it by Republican Senator Marco Rubio.

Rubio told the crowd that he had “breaking news” and that Biden had called them “trash.” He added, “We are not trash, we are patriots, we love America.”

Trump said “that’s terrible” and recalled Clinton’s “deplorables” comment. He added: “Garbage, I think. is even worse.’

He added, “Please forgive him (Biden) because he doesn’t know what he said.”

Donald Trump Jr. said, “The media has been crying all week over a comedian’s joke. Meanwhile, Tim Walz called Trump supporters Nazis. Kamala Harris refused to condemn it.

“And now Kamala’s biggest Democratic ally, Joe Biden, is calling all Trump supporters ‘trash.’ Absolutely disgusting!!!’

Elon Musk, the Trump-supporting Tesla and SpaceX chief, added: “Biden just called half of America ‘garbage.’

Biden’s failed statement also diverted attention from Kamala Harris’ campaign event in Washington DC, aimed at delivering her “closing argument” to voters.

Josh Shapiro, governor of the important state of Pennsylvania, was one of the first Democrats to distance himself from Biden’s comments.

Shapiro was live on CNN when he was informed of the comment.

He said, “I would never insult the good people of Pennsylvania or any American, even if they chose to support a candidate I do not support.

“They’re certainly not words I would choose.”

During a Zoom call with supporters, Biden stepped into Harris’ moment by appearing to lash out at Trump supporters in what Republicans labeled a “disgusting” attack.

The president took action after a comedian at the Trump rally at Madison Square Garden last Sunday compared Puerto Rico to a “floating island of trash.”

Biden said, “The only trash I see floating out there is that of his (Trump’s) supporters.”

He later disputed calling Trump supporters “trash.” He said that by “nonsense” he meant the “hateful rhetoric” that had been on display at the rally at Madison Square Garden.

He made the inflammatory comment on a Zoom call hosted by the advocacy group Voto Latino.

Biden told attendees, “And recently a speaker at his (Trump) rally called Puerto Rico a “floating island of trash.”

“Well, let me tell you something. I don’t know the Puerto Rican that I know, or any Puerto Rico… where I come from, in my home state of Delaware, they are good, decent, honorable people.

“The only trash I see floating out there is his supporters, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and un-American. It’s completely at odds with everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”

In response to the furor, the White House released a transcript of Biden’s remarks in which the word “supporter” had an apostrophe.

Officials suggested that the president was referring specifically and only to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who made the joke about Puerto Rico.

The transcript read: “The only trash I see floating out there is that of his supporters – his – his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and un-American. It’s completely at odds with everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”

Spokesman Andrew Bates said Biden “called the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally ‘trash.’

At a 2016 fundraiser, Clinton, then the Democratic presidential nominee, dismissed Trump supporters by saying that “half” fit into what she called a “basket of deplorables.”