Harris distances himself from furore over Biden's “garbage” comment

Six days after being elected to the White House, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is trying to overcome an uproar sparked by President Joe Biden apparently calling Trump supporters “trash.”

Asked about her boss's comments Tuesday, the vice president told reporters that she “strongly disagrees with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”

When his comment sparked backlash, Biden posted

Trump, the Republican candidate, capitalized on the excitement by getting into a garbage truck during his campaign in Wisconsin and saying, “Biden should be ashamed of himself.”

During a Zoom fundraising call with a Latino voter group Tuesday evening, Biden was initially quoted as saying, “The only trash I see floating out there is his (Trump's) supporters.”

The White House released a transcript saying the president was referring to only one supporter – a stand-up comedian who described Puerto Rico as “a floating one” during a routine event at a Trump rally in New York City on Sunday “Island made of garbage”.

When Harris was asked about Biden's comments before flying from near Washington DC to campaign in swing states, he noted that Biden had already tried to “clarify his comments.”

“But let me be clear,” she added. “I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”

In response to a question from the BBC, she said that if she won next Tuesday's election, she would be “a president for all Americans, even those who don't vote for me.”

Harris sought to shift the focus back to her rival Trump, saying U.S. voters would decide whether they want to “try to unite and break through this era of division.”

The controversy over Biden's comments made headlines and was an unwelcome distraction for the Harris campaign as it delivered its final campaign speech to voters in Washington DC.

From the spot from which Trump spoke shortly before an insurrection by his supporters at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, she called on Americans on Tuesday evening to “turn the page on the drama and the conflict” in US politics.

Back at the White House on Wednesday, aides were still trying to draw a line under the “garbage” controversy.

At the daily news conference, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters: “He (Biden) does not view Trump supporters or anyone who supports Trump as trash. That’s not what he sees.”

Trump's supporters have seized on Biden's comments, drawing comparisons to a controversial remark made by Hillary Clinton in 2016 during Trump's first candidacy, when she said half of his supporters were “deplorables.”

At his rally in North Carolina on Wednesday, Trump said Biden's words were “worse” than what Clinton said.

He told the crowd: “Joe Biden has finally said what he and Kamala really think of our supporters. He called them 'trash.'” And they mean it.

He later flew to Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he boarded a garbage truck with a Trump campaign sticker on the side.

“How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump asked reporters.

Standing in line for the rally in Green Bay was Anne Driessen, who was carrying a black trash bag in a nod to Biden's comment.

She told the BBC: “We are used to this from the other side. He (Trump) has been called Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini – why don't they just call him Satan?

“They also lump us all together.”

Harris supporters who attended her rally in Madison, Wisconsin, told the BBC they were still upset about the comedian's Puerto Rico.

“As a Latina, it’s disgusting,” Mallory Malvitz said. “It’s disgusting that people think that way about people like me.”

Ms Malvitz added that she did not view those with opposing views as “trash” and said some of her own family were Trump supporters.

During his campaign, Trump himself was criticized for calling the United States a “dustbin for the world” and calling political opponents “the enemy within.”

While Trump acknowledged at his New York rally on Sunday that “someone said some bad things,” he also said he didn't think the comedian's gag was “a big deal.”

He said the event at Madison Square Garden was a “love fest.”

In Philadelphia, in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, members of the 90,000-strong Puerto Rican population told the BBC they would not forget the joke.

Residents of Puerto Rico – a US island territory in the Caribbean – are not allowed to vote in presidential elections, but the large diaspora in the US is.