Donald Trump’s Supporters Are “Garbage,” Says President Joe Biden

President Joe Biden referred to supporters of former President Donald Trump as “garbage” in a viral clip from a live CNN appearance on Tuesday, before later walking back his statement with a post on X.

“The only garbage I see floating out there is his [Trump’s] supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable,” said President Biden.

Biden made his statement while discussing a joke made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe during President Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday.

Hinchcliffe jokingly referred to Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage,” sparking outrage from the left and renewed attempts to smear Trump as a racist.

Biden’s comment came as a rebuttal to Hinchliffe’s joke, suggesting that the millions of Americans supporting Trump, rather than Puerto Rico, are the floating garbage.

Trump received news of Biden’s comments during a rally when U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) showed him a printout of the comments.

“I hope their campaign is about to apologize for what Joe Biden just said. We are not garbage, we are patriots who love America,” said Sen. Rubio.

In response, Trump called back to Hillary Clinton’s now infamous comment during the 2016 election when she famously referred to Trump supporters as “a basket of deplorables.”

“Remember Hillary, she said deplorable,” said Trump, “Garbage I think is worse.”

“But he doesn’t know, you have to please forgive him. Please forgive him, for he not knoweth what he said,” he added.

Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) also responded to the statement.

“A mother mourning her son who died of a fentanyl overdose is not garbage. A truck driver who can’t afford rising diesel prices is not garbage. A father who wants to afford groceries is not garbage. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden ought to be ashamed of themselves,” said Sen. Vance on X.

An hour after making his comments, Biden’s X account posted a statement, claiming that he only referred to the comments about Puerto Rico as garbage, rather than Trump supporters, as the CNN clip shows.

“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 comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation,” said Biden’s social media account.

Mainstream news outlets were quick to believe Biden’s claim, prompting headlines like “Biden Appears to Insult Trump Supporters as ‘Garbage,’ but Quickly Tries to Clarify” from the New York Times.

The Times cited a White House transcript that added an apostrophe to “supporters” to make it appear that Biden was referring to the individual “supporter’s” comments about Puerto Rico rather than all Trump supporters.

Vice President Kamala Harris defended Biden after he “clarified his comments” but denounced criticism of anyone based on whom they choose to vote for.

“I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for,” said Harris speaking to the press on the runway.

Harris has a history of referring to Trump supporters as “MAGA extremists.”

Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) claimed that he does not believe that Biden’s comments or the Kamala campaign’s repeated attempts to link Trump to Hitler and refer to his Madison Square Garden rally as a “Nazi rally” undercut the Democrats’ calls for national unity.

Biden caused a similar controversy just last week, speaking at a campaign event in Concord, New Hampshire, when he suggested that Trump should be imprisoned.

“We gotta lock him up…politically lock him up,” said Biden.