"What Joe Biden did was dehumanize us, make us less than people, less than a person created in the image of God. He called us 'garbage.' What do you do with garbage? You throw it out, you get it away from you. It stinks. It carries disease. You burn it." "When Biden says something like that, the theme of Harris's campaign, people need to wake up, particularly in our churches. They are setting the stage for serious persecution. America is going to go down [and] we're going to lose our liberty if these people get another four years. Elon Musk actually believes this will be the last free election in America if Harris wins the presidency." Gary Bauer, chair |
Biden’s unflattering remarks Tuesday evening aimed at likely Donald Trump voters continue a trend in which Democrats of the highest profile have disparaged half of a divided nation. Early voting numbers show some positive trends for Trump, among them the simple fact that Republicans appear to be responding in big numbers.
But how will Biden’s comments play with voters who have yet to cast their ballots? Will the president's insult motivate Christians, who make up a large part of Trump supporters, to get out and vote?
A recent survey conducted by George Barna, the director of the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, showed that somewhere between 32 and 41 million Christians will elect not to vote. However, if Biden’s remarks stir more of the GOP base to participate, those voters can study and see them as repackaged Democratic sentiment.
First there was then-candidate Barack Obama at a private fundraiser in San Francisco in April of 2008 who said of working-class voters in Pennsylvania and the Midwest: “So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
Hillary punched harder than Obama
In her 2016 campaign, Hillary Clinton said of Trump supporters, “You can put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables … the fascists and the haters and the people who are drawn because they think somehow he’s going to restore an America that no longer exists.”
Enter Biden, the sitting president, whose contempt targeted all Trump supporters, not half.
While his vice president stood on the National Mall with the White House as her backdrop making her last planned pitch to voters, Biden was on a call with the Hispanic activist group Voto Latino. He referenced a comedian’s joke at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally that called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”
Biden called Puerto Ricans “good, decent, honorable people,” and continued: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
“It’s an American political tradition,” Family Research Council Action director Matt Carpenter said on Washington Watch Wednesday. “It’s almost like it's just part of our presidential election tradition at this point that you have Democratic presidential candidates disparaging voters.”
Carpenter told show host Tony Perkins that Biden trampled all over Harris’ intended message of unity and her plan for the economy.
“This is just stepping all over the momentum for the Harris campaign. Now they’re forced to backpedal. Recently they were comparing Trump to fascist dictators. Now they’re overstepping on one side then retreating and backpedaling. It’s a ham-fisted response from the campaign.”
And it was a bit of a repeat performance by the president. “This is not the first time he’s stepped on Kamala’s event. You have to wonder whose side he’s on,” Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) told Perkins in the prior guest segment.
Damage control via punctuation
The backpedaling began quickly. The White House, at 6:53 p.m. ET Tuesday, released an official transcript of Biden’s remarks which read “the only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s” – the apostrophe implying that Biden was referring to the rally speaker as an individual.
Apostrophe Gate? Michael LaRosa, the chief spokesperson for First Lady Jill Biden, called the transcript editing “a bonehead move and one they’ve been caught making before.”
The Associated Press reported Biden’s initial comments as “garbled.”
Self disagrees. “I understood them very clearly, and I think the American people did,” he said.
The very next day, Trump embraced Biden’s comments with props of a garbage truck and a worker’s safety vest at a Wisconsin campaign stop.
Hopeful GOP signs in early battleground voting
Carpenter says early voting data shows a dip in the number of mail-in ballots received and a large spike in the number of in-person ballots. “You look at a place like Georgia. In 2020, 1.3 million Georgians had voted by mail. Now you’re looking at less than 200,000. If you look at those early in-person voting numbers, you see an uptick there."
Early in-person numbers in Georgia have increased from 2.7 million to more than 3 million, University of Florida research shows.
In-person numbers are slightly down in North Carolina from 3.6 million to 3.1 million, but mail-in ballots are down drastically from 977,000 to 178,000.
“Typically, Republican voters prefer to vote in person, and Democratic voters tend to vote by mail. We don't know how these voters are voting, but you can draw some inferences that you don't really get with standard head-to-head polling at this stage,” Carpenter explained.
And there are positive signs for Trump in Pennsylvania, another key battleground state. In 2020, Biden had banked 1.1 million Pennsylvania votes before Election Day polls opened.
“So, this time around that firewall is looking more like a 380,000-vote lead for Kamala Harris and Democrats statewide in Pennsylvania,” Carpenter said. “Frankly, Republicans are in a much better position than they were in 2020.”
Editor's note: Sidebar added after story originally posted.
