In the final moments of the presidential campaign, a fight over “trash” erupts • Source New Mexico

The fallout from a comedian's racially charged joke at a rally for former President Donald Trump continued Wednesday as the presidential campaign neared its final weekend and Democrats were on the defensive over President Joe Biden's reaction to the joke.

Republicans claimed Biden had called Trump supporters “trash” while Democrats insisted Biden had been misinterpreted, and a dispute over the placement of an apostrophe in Biden's comment spread from the White House briefing room to campaign stops out of.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday clarified Biden's comments, which he made Tuesday evening during a call to mobilize Latino voters. Biden brought up comedian Tony Hinchcliffe's remark at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of trash.”

“They are good, decent, honorable people,” Biden said Tuesday of Puerto Ricans living in his home state of Delaware. “The only trash I see floating out there is that of his supporters — his — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and un-American.”

In an initial transcript of the White House call, an apostrophe was placed after the word “supporter” to indicate the importance of several Trump supporters. In a later copy, the possessive was inserted into the word so that it read “supporter”, thus referring to a single supporter, Hinchcliffe.

Biden posted on X Tuesday evening that this was his intention.

“Today I called the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico expressed by Trump supporters at his rally at Madison Square Garden trash — that’s the only word I can think of to describe it,” Biden’s post reads. “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That's all I wanted to say. The comments at this rally do not reflect who we are as a nation.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, also told reporters early Wednesday that it is wrong to disparage people because of their political affiliation, while Biden clarified that he was only referring to Hinchcliffe. The furor over Biden's comments came just as Harris gave her “closing argument” speech at the Ellipse on Tuesday evening to a crowd of tens of thousands.

“Let me be clear,” she said. “I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”

Latino voters in general and Puerto Ricans in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania in particular are seen as a crucial voting bloc in the final days of the campaign, and both campaigns are trying to win their support.

Jean-Pierre said in the White House briefing room on Wednesday that Biden doesn't think Trump supporters are “trash.”

“What I can say is that the president wanted to make sure his words were not taken out of context,” she said. “And so he wanted to make it clear, and you heard that from the president. He was very aware of this. And I would say, I think it's really important that you have a president who cares about clarifying what they said.”

Trump has repeatedly said the United States is the “dustbin of the world” because of Biden's immigration policies.

Trump again says the US is a “dustbin for the rest of the world” in his anti-immigrant tirade

Rubio: Harris camp should apologize

But Trump and other Republicans seized on Biden's remark and immediately compared it to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's 2016 remark that many Trump supporters represented “a basket of deplorables.” This comment was seen as damaging to Clinton's campaign against Trump.

At a Trump rally Tuesday night in Pennsylvania, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida gave news of Biden's statement.

“I hope your campaign will apologize soon for what Joe Biden just said,” Rubio said. “We are not trash. We are patriots who love America.”

“Wow, that’s terrible,” Trump added. “Remember Hillary, she said deplorable and then irredeemable, right? But she said regretfully. That didn't work. Garbage is worse in my opinion, right?”

Harris makes closing argument in NC

At a rally Wednesday afternoon in Raleigh, North Carolina, Harris reiterated some of the themes she raised in her “closing argument” speech Tuesday night.

Harris gathers on the Ellipse and urges voters to reject Trump's “chaos and division.”

She urged voters in the battleground state to “put behind a decade of Donald Trump who tried to divide us and make us afraid of each other.”

She said Trump is focused on personal grievances and revenge against political opponents while she will work to improve the lives of voters.

“There are a lot of big differences between him and me,” she said. “But I would say a big contrast is: If elected, Donald Trump will come into office on day one with a list of enemies. If I’m elected, I’ll come in with a to-do list.”

At the top of her list is reducing the cost of health care, child care and other expenses for families, she said.

Harris appealed directly to disaffected Republicans and said she would seek common ground with those with whom she disagrees. That approach, she said, also stands in contrast to Trump, who used offensive language to describe his opponents and vowed to retaliate against them.

“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy,” she said. “He wants to put her in prison. I give them a seat at the table. And I promise to be a president for all Americans, always putting country above party and self.”

Harris received another endorsement from a nationally known Republican on Wednesday when former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would vote for her despite political differences.

Trump also campaigned in North Carolina on Wednesday, in Rocky Mount, a town in a more rural part of the state about 50 miles east of Raleigh.

He said his campaign welcomed all races and religions and that Harris was the one who waged a “campaign of hate” against Trump and his supporters while insulting the vice president.

“Kamala, a low-IQ person, is waging a campaign of hate, anger and retaliation,” he said, repeating a term he has used for her before.

Election integrity

The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee said Wednesday they had won a court case in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, during the early voting period, RNC officials said in a phone call Wednesday afternoon.

Judge orders Bucks County to extend mail-in voting deadline to Nov. 1 following Trump lawsuit

A judge in key swing county extended the deadline to request an absentee ballot after some voters said long lines forced them to miss Tuesday's 5 p.m. deadline.

In the press conference, Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that a Trump supporter was arrested after he told people in line to stay in line just before the deadline.

Party officials, including Trump's daughter-in-law, RNC co-chair Lara Trump, said the result bolstered their confidence in a free and fair election.

“We want to make people across the country feel good about the electoral process in the United States of America,” said Lara Trump. “It is so fundamental to us as a country that we trust our electoral process, and this type of work enables just that.”

Lara Trump said the party has “incredible confidence” in its employees who are committed to ensuring that the election is conducted fairly.

The issue has been a top priority for Republicans since Donald Trump and others claimed without evidence that voter fraud led to his re-election defeat in 2020.

That claim was rejected by numerous courts and a federal grand jury indicted Trump on four counts of using the election fraud lie to incite the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Trump and his allies have also speculated that his political opponents this year would try to use illegal means, including voting by non-citizens.

But in a shift from that rhetoric, RNC officials expressed confidence Wednesday that the 2024 results would be trustworthy.

“I think it's really important that we say loud and clear that we are taking this seriously and that American elections can be trusted,” Lara Trump said. “In 2024 we may want to restore previously lost trust.”

Ashley Murray contributed to this report.