Joe Biden

Christian Britschgi | 10.30.2024 9:47 AM

What's in an apostrophe, anyway? Last night, President Joe Biden called all of Donald Trump's supporters "garbage." Or did he?

The much-debated gaffe came during a Zoom call between Biden and the progressive group Voto Latino. The president's alleged insult of all Trump supporters came as he was criticizing comedian Tony Hinchcliffe for calling Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage" during Trump's Madison Square Garden rally held this past weekend.

A clip of the president's remarks seems to record a rambling Biden saying "The only garbage I see out there is his supporters…his…his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it's un-American."

WATCH: President Joe Biden: "The only garbage I see floating out there is [Trump] supporters." pic.twitter.com/9teSUOytqC

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) October 30, 2024

Reporters' immediate coverage of the comments also records Biden saying "supporters."

Pres. Biden tonight:

"Donald Trump has no character. He doesn't give a damn about the Latino community…just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage?…The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters."

— Gabe Gutierrez (@gabegutierrez) October 29, 2024

Immediately, conservative journalists and Trump himself seized on the comments as an inappropriate demonization of Republican voters. They were quick to draw parallels to Hillary Clinton's infamous "deplorables" insult from the 2016 campaign trail.

In reaction, the White House released a transcript that recorded Biden as saying "supporter's" singular, not "supporters" plural. The president's "garbage" barb was directed only at Hinchcliffe, and not Trump voters writ large, they argued.

Biden tonight in condemning the joke about Puerto........

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