Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Kamala Harris delivered closing argument From the Tuesday night campaign tells About 75,000 people gathered at the Ellipse in Washington, where he would work to bring it to ordinary Americans. Donald Trump He is a “petty tyrant” who is “obsessed with revenge”.

But his last major speech of the campaign was overshadowed by the debate over whether there was an apostrophe in Joe Biden’s statement about Trump supporters on Tuesday night.

“A speaker at his rally the other day called Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of garbage,'” Biden said during a meeting with the Voto Latino group. “The only garbage I see floating around is that of his supporters; his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and un-American.”

White House claims Biden merely referred to comedian as ‘demonization of supporter’ Tony HinchcliffeDescribing Puerto Rico as a “floating pile of garbage” Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden Sunday. But Republicans said Biden’s words should be interpreted without an apostrophe; which means Biden condemns all Trump supporters as “trash.” The Trump campaign immediately seized on this remark, calling it a repeat of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 statement.deplorable basket“I’m trying to make a mistake and turn the situation around argument On Hinchcliffe’s racist joke in the Harris campaign.

Here’s a summary of how politicians and commentators responded to Biden’s “gaffe.”

Biden quickly attempted to correct his remarks, saying on X Tuesday night: to post He said he called “hate speech about Puerto Rico” “garbage” and not for Trump supporters:

Harris said the president “clarified his comments” in his response Wednesday morning, adding that he “absolutely” disagrees with criticizing people for which candidate they support.

“Let me be clear: I completely disagree with any criticism based on who people voted for,” he said. “You listened to me speak last night and continually throughout my career. I believe the work I do is about representing all people, whether they support me or not. And as president of the United States, I will be president for all Americans, whether you vote for me or not.”

His running mate, Tim Walz, offered a similar response. Good Morning AmericaHe said: “Our President made his statement. Let’s be very clear, the vice president and I have made it clear that we want everyone to be a part of this. What needs to end is Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric.”

Just minutes after Biden made the announcement Tuesday night, Sen. Marco Rubio dramatically shared the “breaking news” with Trump onstage at a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

“He’s talking about the Border Patrol, he’s talking about nurses, he’s talking about ordinary Americans who love their country, who want to dream big again and want to support you, Mr. President,” Rubio said, demanding an apology from the Harris campaign.

“This is terrible,” Trump responded. “So you too – remember Hillary, ‘it’s deplorable’ she said… ‘garbage is worse in my opinion. ”

in an X to post Rising shortly after midnight, Trump called America “binDays ago, he said he was running a “campaign for positive solutions to save America” ​​and accused Harris of running a “campaign of hate”:

Trump’s running mate J.D. VanceResponding to the Puerto Rico joke by saying people “need to stop getting so offended by every little thing,” he called Biden’s remarks “disgusting” and inexcusable:

new York‘s Jonathan Chait He called the debate “pure Republican hypocrisy” and noted that the GOP took advantage of a vague statement from Biden “even though he insisted on interpreting his remarks in the most generous light possible”:

Look, Biden has always been prone to gaffes, and he’s become even more prone to twisting his words. He apparently has no reason to have an opinion on the campaign other than his unquenchable ego. But Republicans’ campaign to harshly interpret his comment and then shift into offence-mode should be viewed as nothing more than pure hypocritical bad faith.

Kostas Panagopoulos, a political science professor at Northeastern University, was skeptical that his words would have the same impact on this election as the “deplorables” had in 2016. said news week:

The MAGA base is already locked in. This is unlikely to have much of an impact on them… Biden has already retracted his comment, but perhaps more importantly, unlike Hillary Clinton in 2016, he is not the candidate… Campaigns can still take into account what surrogates say and do on the road, but only certain to some extent. Ultimately, candidates’ words and actions are much more important.