Biden clarifies ‘garbage’ comments threatening to overshadow Harris’s message of unity – US election live
Biden clarifies ‘garbage’ comments as Harris makes closing speech in Washington
Welcome to our ongoing coverage of the US election campaign as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump continue to make their pitches to voters with less than a week to go to election day.
Current president Joe Biden was forced to clarify comments he made on Tuesday after he was seen in an edited video clip saying “the only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters”.
He said that a pro-Trump comedian’s “hateful rhetoric” about Puerto Rico was “garbage”.
Republican politicians and rightwing media outlets quickly picked up the clip to argue that Biden had called Trump’s supporters garbage, comparing his remarks with Hillary Clinton’s labeling of half of Trump supporters as belonging in “a basket of deplorables” in 2016.
Elsewhere:
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Urged by some allies to apologise for racist comments made by speakers at his weekend rally, Donald Trump took the opposite approach on Tuesday, saying it was an “honour to be involved” in such an event and calling the scene a “lovefest” – the same term he has used to describe the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol.
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Harris will spend election night at her alma mater, Howard University, in Washington, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss her campaign’s plans. If elected, Harris would be the first graduate of a historically Black university to occupy the Oval Office.
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Michelle Obama took the stump in Georgia. The former first lady’s organisation When We All Vote hosted a rally for more than 2,000 people at an arena in College Park, near Atlanta’s airport – a slickly produced event that was dominated by earnest pleas to vote from a star-studded roster.
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JD Vance hit back at those who say Trump is a fascist, accusing Harris and her allies of disrespecting second world war veterans as he campaigned on Tuesday in one of the most hotly contested regions of battleground Michigan.
Key events
The latest polls show Kamala Harris enjoys a small lead over her rival Donald Trump. However, the election is still too close to call and a small margin of error could see either candidate in the White House.
The key battleground states, so named because there is no entrenched support for Democrats or Republicans and could swing either way, are Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina.
Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s controversial set continues to be used as a political football by both sides of the aisle as election night draws closer.
The joke that got everyone’s back up was when Hinchcliffe compared Puerto Rico to a floating island of garbage.
President Joe Biden said Puerto Ricans are “good, decent honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”
Republicans seized on the president’s line, comparing it to Hilary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables,” comment during the 2016 election campaign.
Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Trump’s running mate, said: “This is disgusting. Kamala Harris and her boss Joe Biden are attacking half of the country.” Just one day earlier, Vance brushed off the Puerto Rico island-of-garbage comment, saying, “We have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America.”
Biden backpedalled somewhat on social media: “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 wrote. “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.”
Steven Greenhouse
If Donald Trump wins next week’s election, it would be the first time in US history that a candidate wins based on such a huge lie – his falsehood that we have “the worst economy ever”. The former president’s Big Lie has distorted the views of millions of Americans, wrongly convincing many that the US economy is in bad shape.
There’s no denying that many Americans are struggling economically and that inflation was painfully high back in 2022, but inflation is far lower now, and most economists agree that our economy is strong. The unemployment rate is low, inflation is way down, economic growth is solid, and job growth has been remarkably strong. Indeed, the country has added nearly 18m jobs – a record – under the Biden-Harris administration. Not only that, median household income has climbed to $80,610, higher than it was in Trump’s last year in office…
Biden clarifies ‘garbage’ comments as Harris makes closing speech in Washington
Welcome to our ongoing coverage of the US election campaign as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump continue to make their pitches to voters with less than a week to go to election day.
Current president Joe Biden was forced to clarify comments he made on Tuesday after he was seen in an edited video clip saying “the only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters”.
He said that a pro-Trump comedian’s “hateful rhetoric” about Puerto Rico was “garbage”.
Republican politicians and rightwing media outlets quickly picked up the clip to argue that Biden had called Trump’s supporters garbage, comparing his remarks with Hillary Clinton’s labeling of half of Trump supporters as belonging in “a basket of deplorables” in 2016.
Elsewhere:
-
Urged by some allies to apologise for racist comments made by speakers at his weekend rally, Donald Trump took the opposite approach on Tuesday, saying it was an “honour to be involved” in such an event and calling the scene a “lovefest” – the same term he has used to describe the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol.
-
Harris will spend election night at her alma mater, Howard University, in Washington, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss her campaign’s plans. If elected, Harris would be the first graduate of a historically Black university to occupy the Oval Office.
-
Michelle Obama took the stump in Georgia. The former first lady’s organisation When We All Vote hosted a rally for more than 2,000 people at an arena in College Park, near Atlanta’s airport – a slickly produced event that was dominated by earnest pleas to vote from a star-studded roster.
-
JD Vance hit back at those who say Trump is a fascist, accusing Harris and her allies of disrespecting second world war veterans as he campaigned on Tuesday in one of the most hotly contested regions of battleground Michigan.
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