Minnesota Governor and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz (D) asked by CBS News Wednesday morning about comments made Tuesday night by President Joe Biden, where the president sounded like he called supporters of former President Donald Trump "garbage".
Kamala Harris said Wednesday that she disagrees “with any criticism of people based on who they vote for,” reacting after President Joe Biden’s reference to Donald Trump’s supporters and “garbage.”
“I will represent all Americans, including those who don’t vote for me,” the vice president said.
On Wednesday morning, Harris’ running mate downplayed Biden’s comments in television interviews, and pointed towards rhetoric from the former president. He told “CBS Mornings” that Biden “was very clear that he’s speaking about the rhetoric we heard,” not the supporters themselves.
"I think that the frustration we've seen since January 6th, the frustration with Donald Trump's rhetoric of division," explained Walz. "It does fire passions and I think President Biden was very clear that he's speaking about the rhetoric we heard at that. So it doesn't undermine it. 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."
Walz was referring to the tumult that began Tuesday night around the time that Harris was delivering a speech near the White House. Inside the building, Biden was criticizing Trump’s recent Madison Square Garden rally, where a comedian described Puerto Rico as an “island of floating garbage.”
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American,” Biden said in a campaign call organized by the Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino. “It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”
Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, made her comment about President Biden to reporters as she prepared to campaign in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Her words were an attempt to blunt the controversy over Biden’s rhetoric with less than a week until Election Day.
Biden and the White House rushed to explain that the president was talking about the rhetoric on stage, not Trump’s supporters themselves. But Republicans seized on Biden’s comments, claiming they were an echo of the time when Hillary Clinton, as the Democratic nominee against Trump in 2016, said half of Trump’s supporters belonged to a “basket of deplorables.”
In attacking Biden, and by extension, Harris, Republicans are glossing over Trump’s own history of insulting and demonizing rhetoric, such as calling the United States a “garbage can for the world” or describing political opponents as “the enemy within.” Trump has also described Harris as a “stupid person” and “lazy as hell,” and he’s questioned whether she was on drugs.
Trump has also refused demands to apologize for the comment about Puerto Rico at his rally, acknowledging that “somebody said some bad things” but adding that he “can’t imagine it’s a big deal.”
Political attack lines have a history of occasionally boomeranging back on people who use them. For example, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, now Trump’s running mate, once described Democrats as beholden to “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made.”
Vance’s 3-year-old comments resurfaced once he became the vice presidential nominee, energizing Harris supporters who repurposed the label as a point of pride on shirts and bumper stickers — much like Trump’s supporters once cheerfully branded themselves as “deplorables.”
Walz also made similar comments on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” where he emphasized that Democrats’ inclusive message.
“Let’s be very clear, the vice president and I have made it absolutely clear that we want everyone as a part of this,” he said. “Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric is what needs to end.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.