The United States president comes Tuesday under fire as he called a Donald Trump supporter “Floating Garbage” while in a campaign call, reports AFP.
Speaking in a video call with the nonprofit Voto Latino, Biden addressed the controversy that erupted after one of Trump's warm-up speakers at a New York rally on Sunday referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”
In the video, the president could be seen saying “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His, his, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and it's un-American.”
In a statement, the White House said Biden was referring to Trump's rhetoric, not to his supporters.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said, “The President referred to the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as 'garbage.”
Biden's vice president, Kamala Harris, is locked in a too-close-to-call race against Trump for the White House, with Election Day just one week away.
The comments were seized upon by Trump's campaign, with the Republican presidential hopeful calling them "terrible."
"These people. Terrible, terrible -- terrible to say a thing like that," Trump said at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
He compared the comments to when Hillary Clinton -- running against Trump for the presidency in 2016 -- said half of the Republican's supporters were "deplorables."
"Garbage, I think is worse, right?" quipped Trump in Pennsylvania.
Trump's running mate JD Vance called Biden's words "disgusting."
"Kamala Harris and her boss Joe Biden are attacking half of the country," he said.
At the Trump rally in New York on Sunday, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe joked about Puerto Rico being a "floating island of garbage" and made further racist remarks about African Americans and Hispanic immigrants' sex lives.
Residents of Puerto Rico, an American island territory in the Caribbean, cannot take part in US elections, but the diaspora living in the United States numbers almost six million, according to Pew Research Center, and is eligible to vote.
On Tuesday, Trump continued his campaign's push to distance the former president from the comedian's comments.
"I don't know if it's a big deal or not, but I don't want anybody making nasty jokes or stupid jokes," he told broadcaster Fox News.
"Probably, he shouldn't have been there."
Bd-Pratidin English/ Afsar Munna
