President Joe Biden has tried to clarify comments that triggered a fresh row when he condemned a joke made by a Donald Trump-supporting comedian.
On Sunday, comic Tony Hinchcliffe sparked controversy by calling Puerto Rico, a US territory, an “island of garbage” during a Trump rally. Trump has distanced himself from the remark.
Biden looked to turn Hinchcliffe’s words on the other side during a Zoom interview on Tuesday, as the 2024 US election campaign entered its final week.
Some who listened to his comments believed he was attacking Trump “supporters” in general, but he later insisted he was attacking the words of Hinchcliffe solely.
The White House released a transcript which attempted to show that the placement of an apostrophe made all the difference in what the president meant during a video call with non-profit organisation Voto Latino.
“The only garbage I see floating out there is (Trump’s) supporter’s – his – his demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American,” the transcript quoted Biden as saying.
Biden himself later wrote on X: “Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage – which is the only word I can think of to describe it.
“His demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation.”
But Trump’s backers have seized upon the comments, making comparisons with a controversial remark by Hillary Clinton in 2016 during Trump’s first run for office, when she said half of Trump’s supporters were from a “basket of deplorables”.
As the war of words escalated, Trump himself suggested Kamala Harris – his rival for the White House – was running a “campaign of hate”.
Referring to the Biden comments, he said: “You can’t lead America if you don’t love the American people.”
The Madison Square Garden rally referenced by Biden – during which Hinchcliffe and others sparked offence with a range of comments – has now been defended by Trump as a “love fest”.
He acknowledged that “somebody said some bad things” but said he did not think it was “a big deal”.
He stopped short of issuing an apology demanded by prominent figures from the island itself, which is a US territory. A number of Republicans – including from neighbourhoods with strong Latino populations – were outraged.
In Philadelphia, in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, members of the 90,000-strong Puerto Rican population told the BBC they would not forget the joke.
Residents of Puerto Rico – a US island territory in the Caribbean – are unable to vote in presidential elections, but the large diaspora in the US can.
Hinchcliffe himself has defended his material, saying his critics “have no sense of humour”.
Biden’s comments on the furore threatened to overshadow a rally on Tuesday evening by Kamala Harris, who is running for the White House as the Democratic nominee after Biden pulled out earlier in the contest.
Harris delivered what her campaign has called her “closing argument” in Washington DC – at the spot from which Trump spoke shortly before a riot by his supporters at the US Capitol building on 6 January 2021.
She urged voters to “turn the page on the drama and the conflict” in American politics.