Joe Biden may have just pulled the rug out from under Kamala Harris’ campaign with his latest blunder—and it’s a doozy. The Democrats were trying their hardest to paint Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally as some sort of hate-filled spectacle, with Tim Walz even stooping to call it a “N*zi rally.” They latched onto everything they could to slam Trump, right down to a comedian’s comments about Puerto Rico. But then Biden, in classic Biden form, went and stole the spotlight by calling Trump supporters “garbage.”
A comedian telling a joke about Puerto Rico’s landfill problem was so offensive that Joe Biden decided to call half of America garbage instead.
You did it Joe, you united the county!
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) October 30, 2024
Now, if the aim was to rile up half the country and hand Trump’s team a golden talking point, mission accomplished. Politico tried their best to spin the damage, of course, with one of their “journalists” getting caught red-handed covering for Biden. But the video didn’t lie—Biden said exactly what he said, and it wasn’t flattering. Trump, JD Vance, and countless other Republicans pounced, calling out the “disgusting” smear against millions of Americans who back Trump.
Even Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor, Josh Shapiro, couldn’t avoid the fallout, subtly throwing Biden under the bus with a well-timed statement that looked suspiciously like self-preservation. Oh, the irony—the guy who didn’t get the VP pick now distancing himself as quickly as he can. Talk about a strategic move.
BRUTAL: Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro says he’d “never insult” Americans as “garbage,” like Biden just said about Trump supporters.
Kamala has not yet condemned this disgusting rhetoric — just hours after she said she was “proud” to serve with Biden. pic.twitter.com/PIusDWgbXc
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 30, 2024
The White House knew they had a full-on dumpster fire to manage. They scrambled, putting out a transcript—or rather, transcripts—claiming Biden had used “garbage” to refer to the hateful rhetoric, not the supporters themselves. First, it was “supporters” with plural possessive, then singular. But neither one matched what he actually said, and the video was right there for anyone to see. Nice try, though.
Since when is any transcript a recitation of what someone meant to say? This is insane. The entire purpose of a transcript is to transcribe what was actually said. This is next level lying. Even for the Biden White House. https://t.co/BUwwew6pWO
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) October 30, 2024
Biden’s team even went so far as to have him (or more likely an intern) tweet out a “clarification,” which was little more than a thinly veiled dodge. He claimed, “Earlier today, I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage.” No, Joe, that’s not what you said. You called Trump supporters garbage. And the line about Latinos? It’s like Biden assumed all Latinos are illegal immigrants—the exact group Trump was referring to.
WaPo calls “garbage” reference “disputed,” a joke about Puerto Rico’s trash problem “racist remarks,” and suggests the “garbage” smear was part of his “record of verbal gaffes” whereas “Trump has for years vilified his political opponents with vicious… attacks…” pic.twitter.com/lGdZzQHRs7
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) October 30, 2024
This isn’t even the first time Biden has painted Trump supporters with a broad, ugly brush. Remember his “extremists” remark in Philadelphia, where he all but called them threats to democracy? It’s a pattern, and people are noticing.
And if you thought only conservatives were put off by this, think again. Even Chris Cillizza, the former CNN mainstay, called the remark a “nightmare” for Harris’ campaign, which was supposedly trying to make a “closing argument” for unity or something like it. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins also seemed to balk at the whole mess. When you’ve lost Cillizza and Collins, you know the wheels are starting to come off.
Maybe this is just Biden’s latest gaffe, or maybe it’s something else—a pattern that’s hurting his party more than it’s helping. But either way, he may have just handed Trump supporters a massive win while leaving Kamala Harris scrambling to keep her campaign’s head above water.
