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Right-wingers are expressing outrage over
President Joe Biden’s rebuke of hateful remarks made at
Donald Trump’s campaign rally, but many on social media see it as overwrought.
In a
Zoom call on
Tuesday with
the Voto Latino group (October 29), President Joe Biden addressed the comments made by comedian
Tony Hinchcliffe at the highly controversial campaign rally for former President Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden, particularly his joke about Puerto Rico being “a floating island of garbage”. Biden expressed his displeasure, saying: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s — 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.” The verbal gaffe was seized upon by Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance who immediately expressed his dismay in a post on X, formerly Twitter, attacking Biden and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris by writing: “This is disgusting. Kamala Harris and her boss Joe Biden are attacking half of the country. There’s no excuse for this. I hope Americans reject it.”
Fox News aired the clip but selectively edited it to only play the part about the supporters to make it appear as if Biden was widely labeling Trump supporters as “garbage”. The clip has been shared heavily by right-wing supporters and media personalities such as Dana Loesch, who said: “Wow, the orderlies need to be notified. He has gotten loose, Joe Biden has gotten loose. Wow. There goes the ‘live, laugh love’ campaign of Harris, and post-Biden, there goes the dignity in the White House.” Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter that the ginned-up moment wasn’t “a bad October surprise”, continuing: “You may think it’s his cognitive impairment, but it smells more like an ingenious way to inflict long-overdue revenge on Kamala.” Fox News host Harris Faulkner also posted the edited clip, calling it “Sad for the country.”
But more pundits and observers called out those right-wingers as being hypocritical and trying to deflect from the hateful commentary that was evoked at the campaign rally on Sunday (October 27). The White House published the transcript of President Biden’s comments shortly after, partly published by journalist Jonathan Lemire who noted it was “being taken out of context”. President
Biden also issued a statement clearing up his comments: “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say.”
