MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Kamala Harris called Wednesday for Americans to “stop pointing fingers at each other” as she tried to push past comments made by President Joe Biden about Donald Trump’s supporters and “garbage " and keep the focus on her Republican opponent in the closing days of the race.
“We know we have an opportunity in this election to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump, who has been trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other,” the Democratic nominee said.
Harris held rallies in a trio of battleground states as part of a blitz in the closing week of the election, with stops Wednesday in Raleigh, North Carolina; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Madison, Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, the White House rushed to explain that the president’s comment about “garbage” was a reference to rhetoric from Trump allies, not Trump’s supporters themselves. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden “does not view Trump supporters or anybody who supports Trump as garbage.”
The controversy began Tuesday — at the same time Harris was speaking near the White House — when Biden participated in a campaign call organized by the Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino. Biden used the opportunity to criticize Sunday’s Madison Square Garden rally, where a comedian described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of 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. “It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”
Republicans seized on Biden’s comments, claiming they were an echo of the time when Hillary Clinton, as the Democratic nominee in 2016, said half of Trump’s supporters belonged in a “basket of deplorables.”
“We know what they believe. Because look how they’ve treated you,” Trump said at his rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, on Wednesday. “They’ve treated you like garbage. The truth is, they’ve treated our whole country like garbage.”
He also said, “Without question, my supporters are far higher-quality than Crooked Joe’s,” using his nickname for the president.
After landing in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for another rally later in the day, Trump posed for photos while wearing a neon orange and yellow vest and sitting in the passenger seat of a garbage truck festooned with American flags and campaign signs.
“How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said as he took questions from reporters.
“Joe Biden should be ashamed of himself, if he knows what he’s even doing,” Trump said.
In responding to Biden’s “garbage” comment, Trump told the crowd during his rally: “My response to Joe and Kamala is very simple: You can’t lead America if you don’t love Americans, that’s true. You can’t be president if you hate the American people, which I believe they do.”
Harris told reporters before boarding Air Force Two for her flight to Raleigh that she disagrees “with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”
“I will represent all Americans, including those who don’t vote for me,” she said.
Her words were an attempt to blunt the controversy over Biden’s comments and put some distance between herself and the president, something she has struggled with in the past.
Trump has refused demands to apologize for the comedian’s 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.”
At each of Harris’ rallies, she was confronted by pro-Palestinian protestors objecting to her support for Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
“We all want the war in Gaza to end and get the hostages out,” Harris said during one interruption in Madison.
Then she added, “Everyone has a right to be heard, but right now I’m speaking.”
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