WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday she strongly disagrees with criticisms of groups of people based on the candidate they support. Her remarks came after President Joe Biden came under fire the night before for his reaction to a comedian's racist joke at a rally for former President Donald Trump.
Speaking to reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, before leaving for campaign events, Harris said that Biden had "clarified his comments," but added, "I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they voted for."
During a video call for Latino voter outreach on Tuesday, Biden appeared to criticize either Trump supporters or comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who referred to Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage" among other racist jokes at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday.
“They’re good, decent, honorable people,” Biden said, referring to the Puerto Rican community. “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.”
The White House spokesman Andrew Bates quickly put out a statement that Biden “referred to the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as garbage.”
The White House also sent around a transcript in an attempt to show that Biden was not saying that Trump supporters were “garbage” but that he tripped over his lines and meant to say he was condemning Hinchcliffe’s remarks specifically.
The transcript quotes Biden as saying: "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."
In a post on X later Tuesday, Biden also said he was referring to Hinchcliffe.
Biden's comment came shortly before Harris delivered a closing argument speech at the Ellipse in Washington, promising to "turn the page on the drama and the conflict" of the Trump era and give people who disagree with her "a seat at the table."
"Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy," she said. "He wants to put them in jail. I’ll give them a seat at the table."
Harris sought to double down on her message of unity Wednesday, telling reporters: "I believe that the work that I do is about representing all the people, whether they support me or not. And as president of the United States, I will be a president for all Americans, whether you vote for me or not."
She added, "I respect the fact that we all have so much more in common than what separates us, and that most people want a president that understands that, that gets that and approaches their role of leadership that way."
She said that she spoke to Biden on Tuesday night but that they did not discuss his remark.
Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, defended Biden in interviews Wednesday morning, saying that the president had clarified his remarks. He also echoed Harris' unity messaging. “I have made it absolutely clear that we want everyone as a part of this,” Walz said during an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America."
“President Biden was very clear that he’s speaking about the rhetoric we heard at that [rally] so it doesn’t undermine it," Walz said on "CBS Mornings." "People are hungry to come back together. They’re hungry to find a unifying message. They’re hungry for us to find solutions, whether it’s prices or whether it’s reproductive care, they want to see solutions."
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended Biden at the press Wednesday. “He was not calling Trump supporters garbage, which is why he put out this is why he wanted to make sure that we put out a statement that clarified what he meant and what he was trying to say,” she said. “Hateful rhetoric, hateful rhetoric that he hears and this is something that we’ve done many times from here, we’ll call that out.”
Some Democrats, including Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, have criticized Biden’s remark.
“No politician should be talking about anybody that way. Doesn’t matter who they are,” Gallego, who is running in a competitive Senate race against Republican Kari Lake in the battleground state, told reporters after a campaign stop in Phoenix on Wednesday.
Harris has sought to walk a fine line in criticizing Trump while not alienating his supporters, pointing to Trump's divisive rhetoric. During an interview this month on Fox News, anchor Bret Baier asked Harris if she thought Trump voters were stupid.
"Oh god, I would never say that about the American people," she said. "And in fact, if you listen to Donald Trump, if you watch any of his rallies, he’s the one who tends to demean and belittle and diminish the American people."
Among Trump's comments that Harris and her allies have pointed to are him repeatedly calling Democrats and his opponents “the enemy from within” and referring to the U.S. as a “garbage can.” Trump has also said that Jewish people who vote Democrat “should have their head examined” and suggested that he could use the military against the "radical left."
Republicans, meanwhile, have pounced on Biden's comments to attack Harris and her campaign. At an event in North Carolina on Wednesday, Trump said, "My response to Joe and Kamala is very simple. You can't lead America if you don't love Americans. You just can’t. And you can't be president if you hate the American people, and there's a lot of hatred there."
Stephanie Cutter, a senior adviser on messaging for the Harris-Walz campaign, said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday that people should focus their outrage instead on Trump.
“Spare me the faux outrage from Donald Trump, JD Vance, and his campaign," she said. "Even as they’re trying to argue that President Biden is disparaging Trump voters, the president is calling the entire country a trash can."
