The cardinal rule surely is – say what you like about the candidate but don’t be seen to insult those who chose to vote for that candidate.
Hillary Clinton learned that lesson in 2016 when she dismissed Donald Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables”.
She had sought, with remarkable clumsiness, to place Trump supporters into “baskets” – those she thought she could win over, and the “deplorables”.
Well, we all know how that went for her.
The question now is whether President Biden has fumbled his way into a “deplorables redux” moment, but worse. Not “deplorables” but “garbage”.
Reacting to the comments by a comedian speaking at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, Mr Biden said: “A speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage…”
“Well, let me tell you something… They’re good, decent, honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters… his… his demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”
As you might expect, a week out from Election Day, it’s caused something of a stir.
The White House has initiated damage limitation mode claiming the president was talking about the comedian who made the derogatory comments and not Trump’s supporters in general.
Their explanation is in the grammar – that Biden said: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s… his… his demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable…”
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Some might say the apostrophe in “supporter’s” is doing some heavy lifting. And so a statement on X from the president sought to clear up the spiralling controversy.
“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,” the statement on the president’s X account said.
People will make up their own minds and Team Trump is certainly running with it.
His co-campaign manager, Chris LaCivita, quoted Biden on X and said: “Remember @KamalaHarris hates you and they hate the American spirit vote accordingly.”
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Trump’s fiery advisor Stephen Miller, whose own language and rhetoric is deeply controversial, went further: “And with that monstrous ugly venomous disgusting despicable personal attack on 150 million Americans, Joe Biden just ended Kamala’s campaign/hate movement.”
Within a few hours, it was spiralling further.
The Trump campaign rushed out campaign fundraising emails making hay from the apparent gaff.
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What was Kamala Harris’ closing argument?
“You are not garbage! I love you! You are the best our nation has to offer,” an email from Mr Trump to supporters said.
Reporters from Axios asked the White House how they knew President Biden meant “supporter’s” not “supporters”. Had they spoken to Mr Biden to ask him what he meant?
The spokesperson asked to go off the record to give a fuller explanation. Axios declined. The White House didn’t comment further.
Remember early voting is ongoing now across swathes of America – millions are voting right now.
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There is just a week to go until all this is over.
A comment like this, even if clumsy and misconstrued, is not what the Harris campaign needs – especially coming, as it did, just as she finished her end-of-campaign speech in Washington DC.
In a campaign where so many are locked in, will it move the dial? The Democrats’ immediate damage limitation and the Republicans’ glee certainly suggest they both think it could.
It’s a head-in-hands moment for Kamala Harris, no question.
