Karine Jean-Pierre Denies Biden Called Trump Supporters ‘Garbage’: ‘He Was Regarding to the Comedian’
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre pushed back on accusations President Joe Biden referred to supporters of former President Donald Trump as “garbage.”
Biden quickly released a statement clarifying a remark made this week which kicked off a wave of backlash from Trump supporters. Biden made the comment while condemning comedian Tony Hinchcliffe for jokingly referring to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage” during a Trump event at Madison Square Garden.
Trump attempted to distance himself from the comedian, saying he did not hear the joke and he was not aware Hinchliffe was part of the event.
Biden originally said:
And just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.” Well, let me tell you something. I don’t – I – I don’t know the Puerto Rican that – that I know – or a Puerto Rico, where I’m from – in my home state of Delaware, they’re good, decent, honorable people.
The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters – his – his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.
That transcript was eventually updated to reflect the White House’s clarification that Biden was only referring to Hinchcliffe and his rhetoric and not all of Trump’s supporters.
“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 demonization 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,” Biden said in his statement.
Jean-Pierre read this statement for reporters after being questioned about the “garbage” comment.
“Just to clarify, he was not calling Trump supporters garbage, which is why he put out — this is why he wanted to make sure we put out that clarified what he meant and what he was trying to say and so just want to make that very clear for folks who are watching. And I just want to read that out to folks. So he was regarding to the comedian [sic], and I quote,” she said before going into the president’s statement.
She went on to say Biden was only calling out “hateful rhetoric.”
“Hateful rhetoric that he hears — and we have done this many times from here — we will call that out. We will call that out and that’s what the president said,” she said.
Jean-Pierre added that Biden clarified his statement because he saw he was being taken “out of context.”
“The president wanted to clarify because he understood what he may have said was being — he understood that what he was saying was being taken out of context so he wanted to be very, very clear about what he was trying to say,” she said.
Watch above via CSPAN.
