At a Vote Latino gathering Joe Biden made a comment that quickly turned into a pre-election mess. After Donald Trumpʼs Madison Square Garden event where his warm-up speaker made unfavorable comments about Puerto Rico Biden responded with a statement that caused quite a stir:
The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters
The White House staff tried to fix things saying Biden meant the rally rhetoric not the people (but the damage was already done)
Marco Rubio spoke about this at a rally in Allentown: “Heʼs talking about everyday Americans who love their country“. Trump connected this to an old story - comparing it to Hillary Clintons “basket of deplorables“ comment from way back
- JD Vance called the statement “disgusting“
- Tom Cotton wanted Harris to speak against it
- Vivek Ramaswamy suggested it might hurt Harris campaign
The White House spokesman Andrew Bates worked hard to control the situation while Biden posted on X that he meant only the rally comments not all supporters. Meanwhile Kamala Harris tried to keep focus on her Ellipse speech where she talked about bringing people together - but Bidens words made that job much harder