“Trash”… Trump’s Gift to Harris that Biden Sent Back

31st October 2024

2 minutes read

“Trash”… Trump’s Gift to Harris that Biden Sent Back

Republican candidate Donald Trump offered a “gift” to his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris just days before the upcoming election scheduled for November 5, but President Joe Biden had a response for it.

Trump’s “gift” was in the form of an inflammatory comment from one of his supporters, who described the island of Puerto Rico as a “floating island of trash.” This opened an avenue for Harris to attract the influential Latino vote in the election.

However, Biden’s entry into the crisis seemed to return the “gift,” as the U.S. president faced intense criticism on Tuesday after he described Trump’s supporters as “trash” during a campaign call.

In a video call with “Voto Latino,” an organization focused on registering Latino voters, Biden addressed the controversy sparked by the “trash” remark directed at Puerto Rico.

Biden said, “The only trash I see floating out there are his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unacceptable and un-American.”

The White House clarified in a statement that Biden was referring to Trump’s speech, not his supporters.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates stated, “The president was referring to the hate speech during the campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, calling it trash.”

Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate, is in an exceptionally close race against Trump for the White House.

Trump responded to Biden’s comments during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, saying, “These people… it’s terrible, terrible (…) it’s terrible to say something like that.”

Trump compared Biden’s remark to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 statement, when she referred to half of Republican supporters as “deplorables.”

Jokingly in Pennsylvania, Trump said, “I think calling people trash is worse, isn’t it?”

J.D. Vance, who is running as Trump’s vice-presidential candidate, called Biden’s words “disgusting,” adding that “Kamala Harris and her president, Joe Biden, are attacking half the country.”

Residents of Puerto Rico, an American island in the Caribbean, cannot participate in the election, but the Puerto Rican community of nearly six million people in the United States is eligible to vote.