President Joe Biden called Donald Trump supporters "garbage" on Tuesday, according to a transcript posted by CNN correspondent MJ Lee, not to mention the fact that there is video of Biden saying it. "The only garbage I see floating out there is [Trump] supporters," Biden said during a Zoom call with Latino activists. The remark was reminiscent of Hillary Clinton's infamous attack during her failed 2016 campaign, when she referred to Trump supporters as "deplorables."
Doing what comes naturally, mainstream journalists and other partisan Democrats rushed to Biden's defense, denying reality out of fear that the hateful comment could damage Kamala Harris's campaign in the final days before the election. The White House insisted—contrary to the available evidence—that Biden was referring to a single Trump supporter, Tony Hinchcliffe, the off-color comedian who described Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage" during a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden over the weekend. Axios reporter Alex Thompson asked the White House to clarify how it came to that conclusion, but he did not receive a response.
Members of the media eagerly regurgitated the White House spin. "As someone who had a stutter growing up, it's very obvious to me that there was an apostrophe at the end of 'supporters' there," CNN panel guest Franklin Leonard said. "[Biden] was referring to the garbage spewed by [Trump] supporters, not simply the supporters themselves." MSNBC host Joe Scarborough insisted that "Joe Biden obviously doesn't believe that" during a Wednesday morning segment that did not include video of Biden's comments. Republicans, he said, were "trying to make a firestorm out of something." Numerous outlets framed Biden's remarks as an inscrutable gaffe that Republicans were pouncing on for political advantage.
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