President Joe Biden appeared to call Trump supporters “garbage” in a video that quickly went viral, stirring a furious backlash among conservatives and forcing the White House to issue a clarifying statement.
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters … his his his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and it’s un-American,” Biden said in the video, denouncing a comedian’s joke at a Trump rally that referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”
As the backlash gathered steam along with comparisons to Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” remark in 2016 about Trump’s base, the White House issued transcripts with an apostrophe, which, it said, showed what the president really meant.
The White House dispelled accusations that Biden was referring to supporters of the former president as “garbage.” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told Newsweek via email Tuesday that Biden had “referred to the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as ‘garbage.'”
During the video call for grassroots organization Voto Latino on Tuesday, Biden addressed the statements made by comedian Tony Hinchcilffe at Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden, during which Hinchcliffe took aim Puerto Rico.
Biden’s comment has received immense backlash from Trump’s supporters, including the former president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who wrote on X, formerly Twitter on Tuesday that Biden had called all Trump supporters “garbage,” adding that it was “absolutely disgusting.”
Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung also condemned Biden’s remarks on X, writing that Vice President Kamala Harris and the president “HATE Americans and will do everything to crush us if they ever hold power again.”
The president also addressed the backlash in a post to X, writing Tuesday night that he had “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.”
“His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable,” Biden added. “That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation.”
This is a developing story and will be updated as further information becomes available.
