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

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kamala Harris said on Wednesday that she does not agree with “any criticism of people based on who they vote for,” reacted after President Joe Biden’s reference to Donald Trump supporters and “garbage.”

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

Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, made the comments to reporters as she prepared to campaign in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Her remarks were an attempt to defuse differences over Biden’s rhetoric with less than a week until Election Day.

The riots began on Tuesday evening around the time Harris delivered a unifying message in a speech outside the White House. Inside the building, Biden criticized Trump’s recent rally at Madison Square Garden, where the comedian called Puerto Rico “an island of floating trash.”

“The only trash I see there are his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and un-American,” Biden said during a campaign event organized by the Latino advocacy group Voto Latino. “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. But Republicans seized on Biden’s comments, saying they were an echo of when Hillary Clinton, as the Democratic nominee against Trump in 2016, said half of Trump’s supporters belonged to a “basket of disgusting people.”

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 Sen. J.D. Vance, now Trump’s running mate, once described Democrats as beholden to “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable in 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.

He told CBS Mornings that Biden “made it very clear that he was talking about the rhetoric that we heard” and not the supporters themselves.

Walz made a similar comment on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” where he emphasized this inclusive message from Democrats.

“Let’s be clear: The vice president and I have been absolutely clear that we want everyone to be a part of this,” he said. “Donald Trump’s divisiveness is something that needs to end.”