The fallout from the racist joke told at Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally continued on Tuesday evening when Joe Biden had to issue a denial that he called supporters of the former president “garbage”.
Following the remarks, which the White House maintains were misconstrued and taken out of context, the Trump campaign pounced, eager to change the narrative that has potentially cost them support from Latino voters.
Speaking on a Zoom call with Latinos, President Biden stumbled over a few words as he gave a response to the remarks made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe on Sunday when he referred to the US territory of Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage”.
Per the White House transcript, Biden said: “And just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of garbage.’ Well let me tell you something. I don’t – I – I don’t know the Puerto Rican that – they I know –or a Puerto Rico, where I’m fr- – in my home state of Delaware, they good decent honorable people.
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s – his – his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”
A social media storm quickly erupted over whether the word “supporters” was plural or singular with a possessive apostrophe, or whether the punctuation was added to try and clear up any confusion.
President Biden, responding to comments made at Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, said tonight at a virtual “Vote Latino” call:
— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) October 30, 2024
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and it’s un-American.” pic.twitter.com/WGv98LdMnV
As the next word is “his”, singular, it seems that Biden may indeed have been referring to the comedian’s demonization of Latino people as “garbage” and not Trump supporters, plural.
Nevertheless, the quote was cut off by some commenters online after the word supporters, removing the context of the rest of the sentence.
This was quickly pounced on by the Trump campaign who fired out an email with the shortened quote: “The only garbage I see floating out there is [Trump] supporters.”
Also included were outraged responses from Senator JD Vance who called it “disgusting” and Senator Marco Rubio, who demanded an apology.
Rubio even appeared on stage at Trump’s rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to tell the crowd what had allegedly been said about them.
WATCH: Sen. Marco Rubio unexpectedly takes the stage at Trump rally to inform the former President that Biden just called all of his supporters human 'garbage'
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 30, 2024
Trump compared it to Hillary’s infamous ‘deplorable’ remarks in 2016
pic.twitter.com/HTvWMOXJ2t
Trump likened it to when Hillary Clinton referred to his supporters as “a basket of deplorables” in the 2016 election.
Somewhat ironically, the former president has recently taken to describing the US as the “garbage can for the world” when speaking about immigration.
The White House, realizing the need to further deal with the growing brouhaha, posted a statement from the president on his personal X account.
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 demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That's all I meant to say. The…
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 30, 2024
Biden posted: “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.”
He continued: “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation.”
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has been trying to address the scandal of the original remarks at his rally, which outraged the Latino community just one week from election day.
During remarks in Pennsylvania on Tuesday evening, he wildly boasted that “no president ever did more for Puerto Rico,” and during an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, he claimed: “Every time I go outside I see somebody from Puerto Rico. They give me a hug and a kiss.”
