By james art President Biden called Donald Trump’s supporters “trash” on Tuesday as he condemned a joke made by a comedian at the former president’s rally in Madison Square Garden.
The president made the shocking insult as he pushed back against “Kill Tony” podcast host Tony Hinchcliffe’s remarks at a Trump rally Sunday night, during which the comedian called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”
“Donald Trump has no character. He doesn’t care about the Hispanic community,” Biden said during a campaign call at the White House on Tuesday, first reported by NBC. “Just the other day a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage.”
“The only trash I see floating around there are his supporters. His demonization of Hispanics is unconscionable and un-American.
Trump, at a rally Tuesday night in Allentown, Pennsylvania, condemned Biden’s “garbage,” calling it worse than when Hillary Clinton called the 45th president’s supporters “deplorable.”
“Wow! It’s terrible,” Trump said of Biden’s comment.
“So you have to remember Hillary [Clinton] – she said “pitiful” and then she said “irreparable” …. “trash” is worse in my opinion,” Trump added.
Biden, 81, further emphasized on the campaign trail Tuesday that Puerto Ricans are “good, honorable, honorable people.”
White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates insisted that “the president called the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally ‘garbage.’
In a transcript of Biden’s comments provided by the White House, his team said the apostrophe in “supporters” was intended.
“The only garbage I see floating around out there is his supporter — his — his demonization of Hispanics is unconscionable and un-American,” the transcript reads.
Biden himself was quick to make his intention clear via social media.
“Earlier today I called the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico uttered by a Trump supporter at his rally in Madison Square Garden trash — which is the only word I can think of to describe it. His demonization of Hispanics is unconscionable. That’s all I wanted to say,” he wrote to X.
Democrats and the Harris-Waltz campaign had spent two days fighting Trump over Hinchcliffe’s remark, but Biden’s jab appeared to give Republicans new ammunition.
Also on Tuesday night was Vice President Kamala Harris’ “closing arguments” speech at the Ellipse, but Biden’s comment quickly sucked the media’s oxygen out of what she hoped would be a last-minute campaign boost.
Trump distanced himself from Hinchcliffe, who drew widespread, bipartisan backlash for his line on Puerto Rico during his opening speech at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday.
Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance was quick to fire back at Biden.
“This is disgusting. Kamala Harris and her boss Joe Biden are attacking half the country. There is no excuse for that. I hope the Americans reject it,” he wrote to X.
“I don’t know him, somebody put him there,” Trump, 78, later told reporters of the Puerto Rico jab, and his campaign previously said the joke did not represent its views or those of the former president.
Hinchcliffe has since defended his controversial remark, insisting it was a joke.
“These people have no sense of humor,” he posted on X amid the controversy. “I love Puerto Rico and vacationing there.”
During Trump’s rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, home to more than 34,000 Puerto Ricans, the former president was supported by Puerto Rico’s shadow U.S. senator, Zoraida Buxo.
As a shadow senator, Bukso has no voting rights in the upper house.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who rallied with Trump in Allentown, criticized Biden’s attack.
“He speaks for ordinary Americans who love their country and want to dream big again and support you, Mr. President,” Rubio said. “And I hope so [the Harris] campaign is about to apologize for what Joe Biden just said.
“We are not trash. We are patriots. We love America. Thank you for running.”
Trump campaign press secretary Carolyn Leavitt also weighed in on Biden’s attack.
“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris hate America and don’t deserve four more years.” Kamala must be held accountable for this disgraceful attack on tens of millions of Americans.
Biden, who has been overshadowed by the 2024 election battle between Trump and Harris, angered the former president’s supporters last week by jokingly saying they would put him in jail.
“If I said this five years ago, you’d shut me down: We’ve got to shut it down,” Biden said on the campaign trail in New Hampshire last week.
Seconds later, Biden relented: “From a political standpoint, lock it down — lock it down, that’s what we have to do.”