Your support helps us to tell the story

Support Now

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.