Kamala Harris vows to ‘represent all Americans’ following President Biden’s remarks about Trump supporters and ‘trash’

RALEIGH, North Carolina — Kamala Harris On Wednesday, she urged Americans to “stop pointing fingers at each other” in an attempt to push back on President Joe Biden’s comments about Donald Trump supporters and “garbage”.

“We know that in this election we have the opportunity to turn the page on decades of Donald Trump, who tried to keep us divided and afraid of each other,” the Democratic candidate said of her Republican opponent.

Harris spoke in Raleigh, North Carolina, at the first of three rallies she was scheduled to attend on Wednesday. She also heads to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Madison, Wisconsin, as part of a blitz of battleground states in the final week before Election Day.

She emphasized unity and common ground, expanding her final speech on Tuesday in Washingtonwhere she laid out what her team called her campaign’s “closing argument.”

“I’m not looking to score political points,” the vice president said. “I strive for progress.”

Liz Casal, 35, said she was “cautiously optimistic” about the election as she waited for Harris to take the stage. Every week she tried to volunteer for the campaign, including making phone calls, knocking on doors with her young daughter and raising money for Harris’ candidacy.

“You hope for the best and plan for the worst,” Casal said.

Harris was introduced at the rally by a former Republican voter who previously supported Trump, another example of her campaign’s attempt to welcome disaffected conservatives who are concerned about the former president’s re-election.

It was a message that Biden threatened to undermine on Tuesday — the same time Harris spoke outside the White House — as he participated in a campaign event organized by the Latino advocacy group Voto Latino.

Biden took the opportunity to criticize Trump’s recent rally at Madison Square Garden, where the comedian called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”

“The only trash I see there are his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and un-American,” Biden said. “It’s completely contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”

Biden and the White House were quick to clarify that the president was talking about the rhetoric on stage, not the Trump supporters themselves. He did not respond to questions about his comments Wednesday during an Oval Office meeting with the Cypriot president, but spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden “does not consider Trump supporters or anyone who supports Trump to be trash.”

Harris told reporters before boarding Air Force Two for the flight to Raleigh that she did not agree “with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”

“I will represent all Americans, including those who do not vote for me,” she said.

Her words were an attempt to soften the controversy over Biden’s comments and put some distance between her and the president. she struggled with in the past.

Republicans have seized on Biden’s comments, arguing they are an echo of when Hillary Clinton, as the Democratic nominee in 2016, said half of Trump’s supporters belonged to a “basket of disgusting people.”

“We know what they believe. Because look how they treated you,” Trump said at his rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. “They treated you like trash. The truth is they treated our entire country like garbage.”

He also said that “without a doubt, my supporters are of a much higher quality than Crooked Joe’s,” using his nickname for the president.

In attacking Biden—and by extension, Harris—Republicans are glossing over Trump’s own history of offensive and demonizing rhetoric, such as calling the United States a “garbage can for the world” or describing political opponents as “enemies within.” Trump also called Harris a “stupid person” and “fucking lazy” and questioned whether she was on drugs.

Trump also rejected demands to apologize for a comment about Puerto Rico at his rally, acknowledging that “someone said some bad things” but adding that he “can’t imagine it’s a big deal.”

Political attack lines have a history of occasionally boomeranging back at the people who use them. For example, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, now Trump’s running mate, once described the Democrats as beholden to “a bunch of childless cat ladies, miserable with their lives and the choices they’ve made.”

Vance’s three-year-old comments resurfaced after he became the vice presidential candidate, galvanizing Harris supporters, who have turned the label into a point of pride on shirts and bumper stickers, just as Trump supporters once cheerfully called themselves “disgusting.”

On Wednesday morning, Harris’ nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, downplayed Biden’s comments in television interviews.

“Let’s be very clear: The vice president and I have been absolutely clear that we want everyone to be a part of this,” he said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “Donald Trump’s divisiveness is something that needs to end.” ___ Megerian reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, North Carolina, Adriana Gomez Licon in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Tom Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.