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Kamala Harris has said she “strongly” disagrees with “any criticism of people based on who they vote for” as Donald Trump slammed her for comments made by Joe Biden that appeared to call Trump supporters “garbage”.
Harris addressed the gaffe in remarks to reporters on Wednesday before heading on a tour of three swing states, while Trump seized on the comments by climbing into a white rubbish truck with his campaign logo on it during a stop in Wisconsin.
“How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange safety vest. “This truck is in honour of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
Before Trump’s stunt on Wednesday, Harris had tried to distance herself from the president’s comments, which muddied her campaign message with less than a week to go before until election day.
“First of all, (Biden) clarified his comments. But let me be clear, I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for,” Harris told reporters.
Biden, who has largely avoided the campaign trail since he suspended his re-election bid, made the comments on Tuesday evening in a video call with the non-profit organisation Voto Latino as Harris, his vice-president, was addressing tens of thousands at a high-profile campaign rally in Washington.
Biden referred to Trump’s controversial weekend campaign rally in New York, where a comedian sparked outrage by describing Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage”.
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters, his, his demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American,” Biden appeared to say on the call. “It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”
The White House later issued a transcript suggesting Biden referenced a single supporter — “supporter’s” — rather than all Trump voters. Biden said in a post on X that he was referring to the “hateful rhetoric . . . spewed by Trump’s supporter”.
“You heard my speech last night,” Harris told reporters on Wednesday. “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.”
But the clean-up effort did little to stem outrage from Trump and his Republican allies, who were quick to pin the blame on Harris.
“There’s no way to spin it: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris don’t just hate President Trump, they despise the tens of millions of Americans who support him,” said Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign. “Kamala does not deserve four more years. President Trump will be a president for ALL Americans.”
The Trump campaign sent a fundraising text to supporters reading: “KAMALA’S BOSS JOE BIDEN JUST CALLED ALL MY SUPPORTERS GARBAGE!”
On stage at a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday night, Trump compared Biden’s comments with Hillary Clinton’s now infamous remark at a 2016 fundraiser, where she described Trump voters as a “basket of deplorables”.
“Remember Hillary? She said deplorable,” Trump said. “Garbage I think is worse, right? But he doesn’t know, you have to please forgive him.”
Biden’s fumble comes at a critical time for both presidential campaigns, with just days to go until election day on November 5.
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The Financial Times poll tracker shows Trump and Harris in a virtual tie in the seven swing states that are likely to determine who wins the White House.
Biden’s remarks risk overshadowing Harris’s efforts to deliver a rousing “closing argument” to the American people.
Biden’s Zoom call took place minutes before Harris delivered a speech to 75,000 supporters on the national mall in Washington, where the vice-president attacked Trump as “unstable” and “obsessed with revenge” and called on Americans to “turn the page” and vote for her instead.
Tim Walz, Harris’s running mate, was asked by an interviewer on Wednesday morning whether Biden’s comments “undercut” the Harris campaign’s “message of unity”.
“No, certainly not,” Walz replied in an appearance on CBS News, adding: “The president has clarified his remark, but let’s be very clear: The vice-president and I have made it absolutely clear that we want everyone as a part of this.”
Additional reporting by James Politi in Washington
Video: America divided: the women who vote for Trump | FT Film
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