ΒιΆΉΣ°ΚΣ

Skip to main content

Harris promises to 'represent all Americans' after Biden's remark on Trump supporters and 'garbage'

Share
Washington -

Kamala Harris called Wednesday for Americans to β€œstop pointing fingers at each other” as she tried to push past comments made by President Joe Biden about Donald Trump's supporters and β€œgarbage."

β€œWe know we have an opportunity in this election to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump, who has been trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other," the Democratic nominee said about her Republican opponent.

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

She stressed unity and common ground, expanding on her capstone speech Tuesday in Washington, where she laid out what her team called the β€œclosing argument” of her campaign.

β€œI am not looking to score political points,” the vice president said. β€œI am looking to make progress.”

Liz Kazal, 35, said she was β€œcautiously optimistic” about the election as she waited for Harris to take the stage. She’s tried to volunteer for the campaign every week, including making phone calls, knocking on doors with her toddler daughter and raising money for Harris’ candidacy.

β€œYou hope for the best and plan for the worst,” Kazal said.

Harris was introduced at the rally by a former Republican voter who previously supported Trump, another example of her campaign's effort to welcome disaffected conservatives who are uneasy about reelecting the former president.

It was a message that Biden threatened to undermine on Tuesday β€” at the same time Harris was speaking near the White House β€” when he participated in a campaign call organized by the Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino.

Biden used the opportunity to criticize Trump’s recent Madison Square Garden rally, where a comedian described Puerto Rico as a β€œfloating island of garbage.”

β€œThe only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American,” Biden said. β€œIt’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”

Biden and the White House rushed to explain that the president was talking about the rhetoric on stage, not Trump’s supporters themselves. He did not answer questions about his comments Wednesday during an Oval Office meeting with the president of Cyprus.

Harris told reporters before boarding Air Force Two for her flight to Raleigh that she disagrees "with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”

β€œI will represent all Americans, including those who don’t vote for me,” she said.

Her words were an attempt to blunt the controversy over Biden's rhetoric and put some distance between herself and the president, something she has struggled with in the past.

Republicans have seized on Biden’s comments, claiming they were an echo of the time when Hillary Clinton, as the Democratic nominee in 2016, said half of Trump’s supporters belonged to a β€œbasket of deplorables.”

β€œWe know what they believe. Because look how they’ve treated you,” Trump said at his rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. β€œThey’ve treated you like garbage. The truth is, they’ve treated our whole country like garbage.”

He also said β€œwithout question, my supporters are far higher-quality than Crooked Joe’s," using his nickname for the president.

In attacking Biden, and by extension, Harris, Republicans have glossed over Trump’s own history of insulting and demonizing rhetoric, such as calling the United States a β€œgarbage can for the world” or describing political opponents as β€œthe enemy within.” Trump has also described Harris as a β€œstupid person” and β€œlazy as hell,” and he’s questioned whether she was on drugs.

Trump has also refused demands to apologize for the comment about Puerto Rico at his rally, acknowledging that β€œsomebody said some bad things” but adding that he β€œcan’t imagine it’s a big deal.”

Political attack lines have a history of occasionally boomeranging back on people who use them. For example, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, now Trump's running mate, once described Democrats as beholden to β€œa bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made.”

Vance's 3-year-old comments resurfaced once he became the vice presidential nominee, energizing Harris supporters who repurposed the label as a point of pride on shirts and bumper stickers β€” much like Trump’s supporters once cheerfully branded themselves as β€œdeplorables.”

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

β€œLet’s be very clear, the vice president and I have made it absolutely clear that we want everyone as a part of this,” he told ABC’s β€œGood Morning America." β€œDonald Trump’s divisive rhetoric is what needs to end.”

Megerian reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Makiya Seminera in Raleigh, North Carolina, Adriana Gomez Licon in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and Tom Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

A South Frontenac Township man is facing charges, including impaired operation causing death, in connection to a boat crash that killed three people on Bobs Lake in eastern Ontario over the Victoria Day long weekend.

There is new hope for the return of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.

Vanita Lindsay has been paid $8,816.20 for a job she has never worked.

A Toronto man says the Airbnb he was staying at in Montreal last week was robbed and learned that his losses are not covered by the short-rental company.

Local Spotlight

When Leah arrived at work directing traffic around a construction site, she never expected to see a van painted in all sorts of bright colours, and covered in eclectic decorations, including a stuffed moose attached to its roof.

After 14 years of repairing and selling bicycles out of the garage of her home, a Guelph, Ont. woman’s efforts have ended – for now, at least.

Epcor says it has removed more than 20,000 goldfish from an Edmonton stormwater pond.

Witches and warlocks have been flocking to New Brunswick waterways this month, as a new Halloween tradition ripples across the province.

New Brunswicker Jillea Godin’s elaborate cosplay pieces attract thousands to her online accounts, as well as requests from celebrities for their own pieces.

A new resident at a Manitoba animal rescue has waddled her way into people's hearts.

Hundreds of people ran to the music of German composer and pianist Beethoven Wednesday night in a unique race in Halifax.

He is a familiar face to residents of a neighbourhood just west of Roncesvalles Avenue.

A meteor lit up our region's sky last night – with a large fireball shooting across the horizon over Lake Erie at around 7:00 p.m.