Kamala Harris distances herself from Joe Biden's 'garbage' comments

LAST UPDATE | 2 hrs ago

KAMALA HARRIS HAS sought to distance herself from comments by US President Joe Biden appearing to refer to Donald Trump’s supporters as “garbage”.

Biden caused a controversy with the remarks in a campaign call yesterday, as he addressed a row that erupted after one of Trump’s warm-up speakers at a New York rally referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”

The US president made the comments in a video call with the nonprofit VotoLatino and they went viral shortly afterwards.

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

“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” said Biden. “His demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable and it’s un-American.”

Biden later said on X that he had “referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter.”

“Earlier today I 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 demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable,” he wrote.

“That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation.”

The White House later released a transcript adding a single apostrophe – claiming that Biden said “supporter’s” instead of “supporters,” in a bid to back up his assertion that he was referring to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s comments at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally referring to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”

Harris was asked about the outgoing president’s remarks by reporters at Joint Base Andrews near Washington.

“Listen, I think that first of all, he clarified his comments,” said Harris.

“But let me be clear, I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for,” she added.

As she headed back on the campaign trail, Harris, 60, insisted she would be a “president for all Americans, whether you vote for me or not”.

Republicans pounced on Biden’s comments, which threatened to overshadow a major election speech by Harris outside the White House yesterday in which she called for unity instead of what she said was chaos and division under Trump.

In a post on X, Trump’s running mate JD Vance wrote: “Will they continue to insult half of the country for the sin of thinking Kamala Harris isn’t good at her job?”

Meanwhile, both Trump and Vance distanced themselves from Hinchcliffe’s comments , with Vance describing the remarks as “disgusting” while Trump said the comedian “probably… shouldn’t have been there.”

However, the row over the remarks by the 81-year-old Biden, who dropped out of the White House race in July, also underscored his growing marginalisation from the Harris campaign.

US media have reported that Harris aides had feared that Biden is an electoral liability and rejected his suggestions to make joint appearances on the campaign trail.

‘Turn the page’

During her speech yesterday, Harris told Americans to write the “next chapter” for their country and reject Trump’s chaos and division as she delivered a powerful closing argument to voters against the glowing backdrop of the White House.

She warned against Trump’s lust for “unchecked power” as she addressed a mass rally at the site where her Republican rival riled up a mob before the deadly 6 January 2021 assault on the US Capitol.

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“This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance and out for unchecked power,” she said in the speech, exactly a week before Americans go to the polls in the most dramatic and divisive election of modern times.

But Harris then pivoted to an optimistic vision of the United States’ future, using the setting of the White House lit up against the night behind her as a symbolic pitch to show that she is ready for the presidency.

“America, I am here tonight to say: that’s not who we are,” Harris told the huge crowd of flag-waving supporters.

“Each of you has the power to turn the page, and start writing the next chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.”

She said the vote in this election would “probably be the most important vote you ever cast”.

“This election is more than just a choice between two parties and two different candidates. It is a choice about whether we have a country rooted in freedom for every American, or ruled by chaos and division.”

Harris’s campaign claimed 75,000 people attended the rally.

The number could not be immediately verified, but the crowd was unusually large in an election that has seen heavy enthusiasm on both sides.

‘Chaos and division’

Crowds stretched from the Ellipse, a park bordering the White House grounds where Harris spoke, all the way back to the Washington Monument, the obelisk towering over the National Mall.

Speaking from behind bulletproof screens next to blue signs saying “Freedom,” Harris warned that the election was a choice between a “country rooted in freedom for every American, or ruled by chaos and division.”

Harris reminded the crowd that Trump stood at the same spot nearly four years ago and “sent an armed mob” to the Capitol “to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election”. 

After Trump urged supporters in a speech there to “fight like hell,” many then marched on the iconic domed seat of government to disrupt the certification of US President Joe Biden’s victory, in an assault that left 140 police officers wounded and shocked the world.

But while her speech began with the dramatic attack on Trump, she soon switched to a recap of her detailed plans to help financially struggling middle-class Americans.

She got one of the biggest cheers when she referred to Republicans seeking to curtail abortion, saying the government should not be “telling women what to do with their bodies.”

Harris also addressed one of her main weaknesses – the fact that some voters still see her as a continuation of Biden, who dropped out of the White House race in July.

“My presidency will be different, because the challenges we face are different.”

She also sought to lay out a pragmatic and forward-looking plan for the country, including reminding voters about her economic proposals and pledging to work for access to reproductive care, including abortion.

“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy,” Harris said. “He wants to put them in jail. I’ll give them a seat at my table. And I pledge to be a president for all Americans. To always put country above party and above self.”

Also central to her message was positioning herself as a “new generation” of leader after Trump and even her current boss, Biden.

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” she said.

We have to stop pointing fingers and start locking arms. It is time to turn the page on the drama and the conflict and confusion.

Some Harris supporters queued for more than seven hours before the speech, whose sheer scale and energy was a direct challenge to Trump, a politician who has always boasted about his ability to draw crowds.

Harris and Trump remain in a dead heat in the polls, with both desperately trying to convince undecided voters in seven key swing states.

Fears of a repeat of the chaos from four years ago hang heavy over this year’s election, with Trump repeatedly indicating that he might again refuse to accept the result if he loses.

© AFP 2024, with reporting from Jane Moore