Hillary Clinton called them “deplorables” and “irredeemable.” Barack Obama dubbed them “bitter clingers.” Kamala Harris went with “fascists.” Tim Walz chose “Nazis.” And now Joe Biden has entered the chat by referring to those who support Donald Trump as “garbage.”
The comment came Tuesday night during a virtual Harris campaign call with a Latino voting group and took the internet by storm just moments before Harris herself tried to call for unity in a speech just steps from the White House.
On Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk to discuss Biden’s remark and how the Harris campaign and media is trying to spin it today.
Garbage Line
Biden went viral for all the wrong reasons late Tuesday after he disparaged those who back Trump during a video call with Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino. “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” he said. “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”
Here is how it sounded in context:
BIDEN: 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 don’t know the Puerto Rican that I know, the Puerto Rico where I’m fr– in my home state of Delaware, they’re good, decent honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.
The president’s jab was a reference to a joke made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday, in which he referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”
Biden’s “garbage” comment caught fire much in the way Hinchcliffe’s did, and the White House immediately tried to correct the record via the official transcript from the event. It added an apostrophe to the word ‘supporters’ to suggest the 81 year old was only talking about Hinchcliffe.
According to the White House transcript, Biden said:
BIDEN: 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 — that I know — or a Puerto Rico, where I’m fr- — in my home state of Delaware, they’re 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.
Biden then took to his personal X account (not the official @POTUS channel) to further clarify. “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.”
With the exception of more leftist pundits, the media has largely rejected Team Biden’s attempted cleanup and run the quote as it was heard, without the apostrophe.
Damage Control
The comment was immediately likened to Clinton’s ill-fated “basket of deplorables” quip ahead of the 2016 election, though the timing of Biden’s is proving more problematic.
As the president’s “garbage” line was going viral on social media, Harris delivered what was being called her closing message to voters from the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. In it, she tried to make the case that she would be a unifying leader who would turn the page on the divisiveness of this era of American politics.
When asked for comment on Wednesday at Joint Base Andrews, she tried to distance herself from the president. “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,” Harris said.
She then reiterated her own message from Tuesday’s address. “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 continued. “And as president of the United States, I will be a president for all Americans whether you vote for me or not. That’s my responsibility, and that’s the kind of work that I’ve done my entire career, and I take it very seriously.”
Motivating Factor?
Given how the media seized on Hinchcliffe’s joke, Megyn said they have backed themselves into a corner. “They have spent two days telling us if somebody affiliated with the other side calls a group of people ‘garbage,’ that could be a single issue for you. When you go into that ballot box, you must vote against that person because that is absolutely deeply offensive, racist, terrible, beyond the pale,” she noted.
“And then what happens? Not some comedian who is warming up four hours before Kamala Harris gets out there, but the sitting President of the United States – who has been her partner in all policy, from whom she sees no differences for the past four years, as she has said repeatedly now over the past couple of week – gets out there and says Trump supporters are ‘the only garbage I see,'” Megyn continued. “The media has absolutely room to run. There is no way of squaring those two positions. They must say, ‘This is deeply wrong, and you cannot support a ticket that would have that kind of mentality about the American people.'”
While Megyn said the media and left are “in Cirque du Soleil contortions to try to get away from it,” Kirk believes the Harris campaign has lost control of their final message. “This is now the closing argument, and this is worse than ‘deplorables,'” he said. “I think it is going to do nothing but motivate people that might not have voted to go out and vote because the current administration hates you… They believe you are garbage.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Kirk by tuning in to episode 930 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.