‘It’s very obvious to me that there was an apostrophe at the end of “supporters”‘
President Joe Biden called Donald Trump supporters “garbage” on Tuesday, according to a transcript posted by CNN correspondent MJ Lee, not to mention the fact that there is video of Biden saying it. “The only garbage I see floating out there is [Trump] supporters,” Biden said during a Zoom call with Latino activists. The remark was reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s infamous attack during her failed 2016 campaign, when she referred to Trump supporters as “deplorables.”
Doing what comes naturally, mainstream journalists and other partisan Democrats rushed to Biden’s defense, denying reality out of fear that the hateful comment could damage Kamala Harris’s campaign in the final days before the election. The White House insisted—contrary to the available evidence—that Biden was referring to a single Trump supporter, Tony Hinchcliffe, the off-color comedian who described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage” during a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden over the weekend. Axios reporter Alex Thompson asked the White House to clarify how it came to that conclusion, but he did not receive a response.
Members of the media eagerly regurgitated the White House spin. “As someone who had a stutter growing up, it’s very obvious to me that there was an apostrophe at the end of ‘supporters’ there,” CNN panel guest Franklin Leonard said. “[Biden] was referring to the garbage spewed by [Trump] supporters, not simply the supporters themselves.” MSNBC host Joe Scarborough insisted that “Joe Biden obviously doesn’t believe that” during a Wednesday morning segment that did not include video of Biden’s comments. Republicans, he said, were “trying to make a firestorm out of something.” Numerous outlets framed Biden’s remarks as an inscrutable gaffe that Republicans were pouncing on for political advantage.
The New York Times reported that “Republicans seized on the seeming gaffe” after Biden “appeared to insult Trump supporters as ‘garbage.'” CBS News described how “Republicans seized on the video” of Biden’s remarks after the president “reinserted himself into the contentious campaign” by “appearing to call … Trump’s supporters ‘garbage.'” The Hill wrote that Biden “appeared to compare” Trump supporters to garbage, while noting that the 81-year-old president “often misspeaks, sometimes making it difficult to figure out what he is saying or meaning.” NPR, the taxpayer-funded media outlet, explained that Biden “has a life-long history of gaffes” but that Republicans were still using his comments as “new fodder” on the campaign trail. The Washington Post published an “analysis” of Biden’s attack, concluding it was “entirely plausible” that Biden didn’t intend to call Trump supporters “garbage” given his “increasing tendency to stumble over his words.” Republicans, meanwhile, were straining to “recreate the political magic” of Hillary’s “deplorables” comment.
Others weren’t so eager to deny reality and promote misinformation. Former CNN reporter Chris Cillizza said it was “laughable” for the White House to alter the transcript of Biden’s comments. Michael LaRosa, formerly an MSNBC producer and Biden administration official, agreed that it was a “bonehead move and one they’ve been caught making before.” CNN analyst Mark Preston also criticized the White House clean-up effort, but for a different reason. “I’m of the mindset that if you say it, you might as well just embrace it, and I do think that that’s a problem for Democrats,” Preston said. “I do think if he said, ‘Listen, yeah, I do mean all those racist supporters of Donald Trump, yeah, I do think that they’re terrible,’ I think that people would look at the Democratic Party a little bit different. … Look, I do think that the Democratic Party, in general, doesn’t look like they are strong enough, and they will always back off of things. And I think that when Joe Biden backs off of saying what he really believes, I don’t think that’s a good look.”
Vice President Kamala Harris said she spoke with Biden on Tuesday night following her primetime address on the National Mall, where she denounced Trump as a “petty tyrant” whose election would incite “chaos and division.” Biden’s “garbage” remark did not come up during the conversation, Harris told reporters on Wednesday. “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,” she said.
During a CNN town hall event last week, Harris ominously implied that Trump voters were supporting a “fascist” who admires Adolf Hitler and is “increasingly unstable and unfit to serve” as president.
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