Down-voting Republicans used Biden's 'garbage' comments to help close the gap in the final days

Republicans in tight Senate races less than a week before Election Day attacked President Biden, calling former President Trump's supporters “scum” in a last-ditch effort to drum up support in down-ballot GOP races.

Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick released a campaign ad Wednesday featuring a video of Biden's remarks, followed by images of his incumbent rival, Sen. Bob Casey, praising Biden.

“Donald Trump has no character. He doesn't serve the Latino community,” Biden said during a campaign rally at the White House on Tuesday. “Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage.

“The garbage I see floating around is his followers. His demonization of Latinos is absurd, and he's American.”

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McCormick's ad featured Biden's words and a video showing Casey praising Biden as a man of unparalleled “integrity.”

“Clean up their mess on Nov. 5. Vote Republican. Vote Dave McCormick,” the voiceover in the ad says.

Biden's comments set off a firestorm of criticism from Republicans nationally, with some comparing it to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's “sad basket” of fundraising during her failed 2016 campaign, which was seen as a setback for her campaign.

“We are not trash. We are patriots who love America,” said Sen. Marco Rubio at a Trump rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday.

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The White House tried to walk back Biden's comments, saying he was referring directly to comments made during Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday evening. Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, host of the popular podcast “Kill Tony,” sparked controversy after cracking a joke hours before Trump took the stage at Madison Square Garden that Puerto Rico is a “floating island of garbage.”

The White House tried to walk back the president's comments on Tuesday evening. Administration spokesman Andrew Bates told Fox News Jacqui Heinrich Biden “referred to the hate speech at the Madison Square Garden rally as 'trash.'

Biden added in a follow-up clarification that X was referring to the comedian's rhetoric, not Trump supporters across the board.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro looks on as President Biden delivers his remarks after a briefing on emergency repair and reconstruction efforts on Interstate 95 in Philadelphia on June 17, 2023. (Julia Nikhinson/AFP via Getty Images)

“Earlier today I spoke about hate speech about Puerto Rico lampooned by Trump supporters at his Madison Square Garden rally as trash — the only word I can think of to describe it,” Biden wrote on the X site. “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That's all I meant to say. Commenting on that meeting does not reflect who we are as a nation.”

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“Sen. Casey respects all Pennsylvanians regardless of how they vote,” Casey campaign spokeswoman Maddy McDaniel told Fox News Digital when contacted for comment about McCormick's ad.

McCormick believes Pennsylvania voters recognize the importance of the 2024 election. (Reuters I Associated Press)

The National Republican Senatorial Committee also presented Biden's comments, pointing to four Democrats in tight races against Republican challengers — Montana Sen. Jon Tester, Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego, candidate. Senate in Arizona – for previous negative comments about Trump supporters.

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NRSC compares Biden's comments to Baldwin's 2016 remarks that Republicans fail the “morality test” for their support of Trump and Gallego saying that in 2016 the Trump campaign “pulled in the worst people in the world.”

Former President Trump on Fox News hosted Sean Hannity's show on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. (Fox News)

“These Democrats have spent years attacking Donald Trump and his supporters as deplorable and racist, even calling them 'the worst people in the world.' Now that they are seeking the support of Trump supporters, voters need to know whether they will condemn Joe Biden's disgusting words or fall in line again,” said NRSC spokesman Philip Letsou commenting on the four Democrats.

Trump's campaign also slammed the comments, saying that Biden and Vice President Harris not only “hate President Trump,” but also “disrespect” his millions of supporters.

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“President Trump is supported by Latinos, black voters, union workers, angel mothers, law enforcement officers, border patrol agents and Americans of all faiths, while Harris, Walz and Biden have called these great Americans fascists, Nazis and, now, trash. . . . how to spin it: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris don't just hate President Trump, they despise tens of millions of Americans who support him,” Trump's national press secretary Caroline Leavitt commented.

Former President Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, and Dave McCormick, the Republican candidate for the US Senate in Pennsylvania, shake hands during a campaign event in Reading, Pa., Oc. 9, 2024. (REUTERS/Jeenah Moon)

McCormick joined “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday, where he criticized Biden's speech and demanded an apology.

“Anytime you call half of the American people trash, because half of the people support President Trump, I think that's the kind of divisive rhetoric that we need to get out of politics. I think it's very divisive. President Biden, Kamala Harris and Bob Casey had policies that hurt more than half of Americans with rising rates, the problem of fentanyl now, they actually showed him disrespect when he spoke to Fox News from a restaurant in Gap, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday.

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“I think it shows how they really feel about the people who support President Trump,” he said.

Harris also distanced himself from Biden's comments on Wednesday, saying his final speech to voters in Washington, DC, on Tuesday showed that he would govern all Americans if elected, regardless of their political affiliation.

“I think, first of all, he made his comments clear, but let me be clear. I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they voted for,” Harris said.

“You heard my speech last night and always in my work,” Harris said. “I believe that the work I do is to represent all people whether they support me or not, and as the president of the United States I will be the president of all Americans whether they vote for you or not.”

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