From ‘garbage’ to ‘lock him up’, Biden’s gaffes undermine Harris in final days of campaign (Video)

After dropping out of the 2024 race, President Biden has sought to adapt to a new role as he finishes out his term while trying not to damage Vice President Kamala Harris’ chances of defeating Donald Trump in November.

Last week, however, Biden struggled to complete the “do no harm” mission.

‘Garbage’

On Tuesday, Harris gave her final speech to 75,000 people gathered at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., appealing to undecided voters and vowing to “be a president for all Americans” and warning that Trump is “unstable and hell-bent on revenge.” . , consumed by resentment.”

But as the speech ended, video clips began circulating on social media of Biden appearing to call Trump supporters “trash” during a video call with a Latino voter registration group. However, this negative interpretation is based on the belief that Biden said “supporters” rather than “supporters” when he said, “The only trash I see out there is his (supporters/supporters).”

Biden was referring to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s off-color joke during Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday: “I don’t know if you know this, but there’s literally a floating island of trash in the middle of the ocean. right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”

Hinchcliffe’s remark sparked outrage and could affect election results in states where people of Puerto Rican descent make up a significant percentage of voters. But to many voters, Biden’s words seemed to echo Hillary Clinton’s famous blanket description of Trump supporters as a “basket of disgusting people.” With the election tied and the campaign winding down, such insults can help motivate voters, and Biden quickly went into damage control mode.

“Earlier today, I called the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by a Trump supporter at his rally in Madison Square Garden trash — and that’s the only word I can think of to describe it,” Biden said in a statement. message published on social networks Tuesday evening. “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I wanted to say. The comments at this rally do not reflect who we are as a nation.”

On Wednesday, as Trump supporters continued to insist that Biden was targeting them as a group and not just yelling at Hinchcliffe, Harris issued her own statement.

“Let me be clear: I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for,” Harris told reporters.

“Lock him up”

The controversy over Biden’s “trash” joke comes a week after the president made headlines when he spoke about Trump to a group of Democrats in New Hampshire.

Referring to the Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity and the powers it could give Trump if he’s re-elected, Biden told his audience: “I know it sounds weird – it sounds like if I said that five years ago, you would have told me locked. We have to lock him up. Politically lock him up. Lock him up. This is what we have to do.”

The Trump campaign wasted no time in criticizing Biden and Harris for what Trump later called evidence of “election interference.”

“Joe Biden has just admitted the truth: his and Kamala’s plan all along has been to politically persecute their opponent, President Trump, because they cannot beat him fair and square,” Caroline Leavitt said in a statement Tuesday. Trump campaign national press secretary. . “Administrator Harris-Biden poses an existential threat to democracy. We call on Kamala Harris to condemn Joe Biden’s disgraceful remark.”

Biden has largely refrained from discussing the legal cases brought against Trump, and Harris, a former prosecutor turned politician, often closes “Lock him up!” chants as they erupt at her campaign rallies, telling her audience: “The courts will deal with this. We’re going to beat him in November.”

But as Biden continues to push back on her message to voters — that she will “work every day to build consensus and compromise” — that promise is being tested even further.