Well ... that was certainly an honest closing argument last night, at least from Joe Biden. No pussyfooting around here. As his VP tried to offer her own closing argument by [checks notes] regurgitating her oft-delivered attacks on Donald Trump, the President of the United States made sure everyone knows how he feels about half the country, as John reported last night.
Somehow, "basket of deplorables" sounds almost quaint in comparison, no?
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
NBC's White House correspondent heard it accurately and reported it first:
Pres. Biden tonight:
— Gabe Gutierrez (@gabegutierrez) October 29, 2024
“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.”
Well, well, well. Democrats considered it a National Outrage and a High Crime to have an insult comic call an island "garbage." What is it when a sitting president calls tens of millions of Americans "garbage"?
If you ask Kamala Harris that question, she might answer: It's 25th Amendment time. Salena Zito had an answer, too:
There is a very very very big difference between an insult comedian saying an island is a pile of garbage & a sitting US president saying “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters” of half the people in the country, he supposedly governs who support Trump pic.twitter.com/6chFFO1UmM
— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) October 30, 2024
Let's put aside all of the other issues that this raises, including the hatred and condescension of Biden and the elites toward the proles. (Okay, let's put that aside now. I'll address it in another post.) What in the name of all that is holy was the White House thinking in having Joe Biden out in public at all? Especially late in the day, when Biden is (ahem) hardly at his best?
Harris and her team had planned for this "closing argument" speech for a week. They had worked the pitch in different forums, likely refining the rhetoric for maximum impact. The media had created a big opening for the message by hyperventilating over a dumb joke by an insult comic at the rally and then demanded that Trump answer for it all day long. It could not possibly have been teed up any better for Harris, even if her speech turned out to be a tired rerun of the same disqualification argument she and Biden have been flogging for the last eighteen months.
All she needed was to make sure no one stepped on her message. And not only did Biden step all over it, he made himself into exactly what Harris claimed about Trump. How does this not apply to the boss that Harris still insists is Sharp As A Tack™ and totes capable?
Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking where Donald Trump held his Jan. 6 rally, said he had tried to keep Americans “divided and afraid” of one another. “That is not who we are,” she added.
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 30, 2024
Follow live election updates here. https://t.co/hAhSXLcHYw
Even better: the NYT headline at the link is "Harris Promises Unity in Closing Argument."
Bwa-hahahahahahahahahahaha.
Unbelievable. It's almost as if Biden went out of his way to stomp all over Harris' news cycle. Until now, I've been skeptical that Biden was trying to sabotage Harris, but ... is there another explanation for this? Incompetence really seems insufficient as an explanation.
Now, of course, media orgs have to figure out what to do with this. They spent two full days shrieking over Tony Hunchcliffe's dumb joke about Puerto Rico and trying to pin that on Trump, which means they basically set a trap for themselves that Biden sprung on them. Will the Protection Racket Media demand answers from Harris about her boss calling half of the American electorate "garbage"? Did Biden leave them any choice but to at least cover this? If they do, Harris' closing argument will get buried and she'll have to spend the last few days of her campaign trying to explain Biden away.
They're not off to a great start, at least not at Politico:
"The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters." That's a direct quote. That's what Kamala Harris's boss said. This is how Politico decided to report it:
— JD Vance (@JDVance) October 30, 2024
Do @JonLemire @alexanderburns @politico have an ounce of integrity? Will they correct this obvious falsehood? pic.twitter.com/B1ktGVpLfz
And it didn't get any better either:
Gee, when a comic made a joke about garbage at Trump's rally, the story in the establishment media was Trump.
— Ed Morrissey (@EdMorrissey) October 30, 2024
When Joe Biden called half of the electorate "garbage" for supporting Trump, the story at @politico becomes Republicans pouncing. Quelle surprise. https://t.co/qE3L9HRSEo
What an absolute cluster-you-know-what. It's a perfect finale to one of the most incompetent executive pairs ever elected to the White House.
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