Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday distanced herself from President Joe Biden’s comments that seemingly referred to Donald Trump’s supporters as “garbage,” setting off a political firestorm a week before Election Day.
Harris told reporters that she “strongly” disagrees with criticizing people based on who they vote for. Asked if she has spoken to the president about his comments, Harris said that Biden called her Tuesday evening but that the president’s comments “didn’t come up.”
“Listen, I think, first of all, he clarified his comments, but let me be clear: I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for. You heard my speech last night and continuously throughout my career. I believe that the work that I do is about representing all the people whether they support me or not,” Harris said on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews.
The vice president also repeated what she has said on the trail, including that she will “represent all Americans” if elected.
“I am sincere in what I mean: When elected president of the United States, I will represent all Americans, including those who don’t vote for me, and address their needs and their desires,” Harris said.
The president inadvertently injected himself into the home stretch of the campaign on Tuesday night when he was attempting to criticize Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden over the weekend. Biden mentioned Puerto Rico, which was referred to as a “floating island of garbage” by a comedian at Trump’s event on Sunday night.
“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 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,” Biden said during virtual remarks in a Voto Latino get-out-the-vote call meant to help Harris.
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” Biden said, pausing for a moment before continuing. “His, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and it’s un-American.”
Biden had attempted to explain away his comments on Tuesday night.
“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,” Biden posted on X later that evening. “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.”
When CNN asked for an explanation on the president’s comments, a White House spokesperson insisted that Biden had meant “supporter’s” rather than “supporters,” arguing that he had actually said this: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s – his – his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”
“The President referred to the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as garbage,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said.
Harris’ campaign was quick to try to publicly defend or explain those remarks publicly. But in private, both inside and around the campaign, plenty of Democrats were quietly buzzing with frustration and concern about the president’s remarks.
Senior campaign officials were fielding messages of exasperation from supporters – some of whom suggested that perhaps the president should find a way to disappear from public view altogether in the final six days leading up to Election Day, sources said.
“The Biden gaffe yesterday is just so infuriating,” one former administration official said. “Nobody wants him out there.”
Biden’s remarks have undeniably become an unwelcome distraction. Trump and his allies quickly seized on them to accuse Harris and her campaign, by extension, of looking down on Americans who back the former president.
Democrats are forcefully making the point that Biden is not the presidential nominee, and Harris has been abundantly clear that she has respect for all voters – regardless of whether they support her. They also have lashed out at what they see as a double standard, given Trump’s long history of racist, misogynistic and offensive remarks.
“We won’t lose a single voter because of it,” said one adviser to the campaign, dismissing the significance of Biden’s comments.
As CNN has reported, there had been growing wariness among Harris campaign aides about Biden’s propensity for gaffes, at a moment when the campaign does not want to take any unnecessary political risks. Tuesday night’s “garbage” comments from Biden only ended up confirming those existing concerns for many Democrats.
Earlier on Wednesday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ vice-presidential running mate, said in an interview with CBS News that Biden’s comments a response to the “frustration with Donald Trump’s rhetoric of division,” and rejected the argument that they undercut a central message of the Harris campaign to unify the country.
“I think there’s– the frustration we’ve seen since January 6, the frustration with Donald Trump’s rhetoric of division, it does fire passions, and I think … President Biden was very clear that he’s speaking about the rhetoric we heard at that. So, it doesn’t undermine it,” Walz said.
In an interview with ABC News, Walz said that Harris’ remarks in Washington, DC, on Tuesday should be the message voters focus on, noting that Harris is the candidate at the top of the Democratic ticket, not Biden.
“The president’s clarified his remarks, but let’s be very clear. The vice president and I have made it absolutely clear that we want everyone as a part of this. Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric is what needs to end. He called this a garbage country, and continues on from ‘the enemy within,’” he said. “What you heard Vice President Harris say, and what I say is, there’s a place for all of us here, and I think that’s the one– she’s running for president, she’s making the message, and she delivered that speech on the Ellipse that showed what we can be as a country.”