As White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre attempted to spin President Biden’s remark calling Trump supporters ‘garbage,’ saying the ‘president for all’ would never speak badly about people that support Trump, Biden’s former comments about MAGA Republicans are coming back to haunt him.
During a press briefing on Wednesday, Jean-Pierre insisted that Biden was not calling Trump supporters garbage, but instead was calling comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke about Puerto Rico ‘garbage.’
‘He does not view Trump supporters or anybody who supports Trump as garbage. That is not what he views,’ the press secretary said of Biden.
‘He has said multiple times that he is a president for all. It doesn’t matter if you live in a red state, it doesn’t matter if you live in a blue state. He has said it himself. I have said it on his behalf. He believes that he’s a president for all. And it doesn’t matter who you voted for, doesn’t matter if you voted for him or not. He’s a president for all. But hateful rhetoric, hateful rhetoric that he hears. And this is something that we’ve done many times from here. We will call that out. We will call that out.’
During a virtual call with Voto Latino, Biden was asked about Trump’s rally in Madison Square Garden, which made headlines after Hinchcliffe told a joke, referring to Puerto Rico as a ‘floating island of garbage.’
He responded by saying, ‘Donald Trump has no character. He doesn’t give a damn about the Latino community. He’s a failed businessman. He only cares about the billionaire friends that he has and accumulating wealth for those at the top. He says immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country – give me a break. He wants to do away with the birthright citizenship. Who the hell has said that in the last hundred years? And just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of garbage.’ Well, let me tell you something. I don’t — I — I don’t know the Puerto Rican that — that I know — or a Puerto Rico, where I’m fr- — in my home state of Delaware, they’re good, decent, honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.’
Now the White House is insisting that Biden would not speak badly about people that support Trump, but his past comments about MAGA Republicans seem to say otherwise.
Sept. 5, 2022 – Laborfest, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
On Sept. 5, 2022, Biden gave a Labor Day speech to workers in Milwaukee, where he went after MAGA Republicans and Trump supporters.