Staff Reports
In a spectacularly misguided attempt to rally against Donald Trump and his supporters, President Biden managed to pull off a gaffe that might just end the political aspirations of Vice President Kamala Harris for good. During a recent Democratic attack on a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden, which was characterized by party insiders as a “Nazi rally,” Biden took it one step further by labeling Trump supporters as “garbage.” This unfortunate choice of words lit a firestorm that his team has scrambled to extinguish.
The fallout was immediate, as Politico found itself in a tight spot trying to spin Biden’s comments. Video evidence surfaced, rendering their narrative questionable at best. With video footage corroborating what Biden actually said, any attempts to provide a softer spin on his remarks fell flat. This debacle was made even more entertaining when Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a fellow Democrat, distanced himself from Biden’s remarks, applying a little friendly fire that likely left the White House strategists reeling.
Biden’s team reacted like a cat caught in a room full of rocking chairs. Almost immediately, they released multiple transcripts in a hasty effort to clarify the president’s comments, which only served to highlight their confusion. They couldn’t even keep their stories straight, first claiming Biden was referring to supporters in a plural sense, then pivoting to singular possessive terminology. The president’s original statement was clear—calling the supporters themselves “garbage,” a significant miscalculation in a race where every word counts.
Biden and WH Desperately Try – and Fail – to Clarify His Comments Calling Trump Supporters Garbagehttps://t.co/GXTN1FiILx
— Papa Hemingway (@PopHemingway) October 30, 2024
As if trying to dig out of a hole, the president later posted a clarification that, to put it mildly, didn’t quite meet the mark. He attempted to say that he was merely referring to the rhetoric surrounding Puerto Rico at the rally, not the supporters themselves. However, this was little more than a poor cover-up. The distinction between what he intended and what he actually said is a gaping canyon. When he equated comments about illegal immigrants with all Latino Americans, he inadvertently branded millions of citizens as “garbage.” Just saying, “that’s all I meant to say,” doesn’t sweep the problem under the rug it was previously hidden behind.
This isn’t Biden’s first trip down this rocky road. His history of demonizing Trump supporters has become a pattern, previously labeling them “extremists” during a speech in Philadelphia. Such rhetoric isn’t just harmful; it’s politically reckless, especially given the upcoming election cycle when unity—of any kind—should be the name of the game. Not even the left-leaning media outlets are siding with him this time. Former CNN analyst Chris Cillizza, for instance, called the gaffe an “absolute nightmare” for Harris’s campaign, underscoring just how damaging Biden’s slip could be to Democratic ambitions.
If losing the support of opinion makers like Cillizza and CNN’s Kaitlan Collins isn’t a red flag, it’s hard to imagine what is. The panic within the Biden camp is palpable, and with his approval ratings in the dumpster alongside their unity narrative, it seems the Democrat Party is in a precarious situation. After all, a party that depends on harping on the flaws of the opposition might want to consider cleaning up its own house before throwing stones. The Biden debacle has left many to wonder: just what kind of campaign are Democrats running if this is the best they’ve got?
