Former GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley criticized President Biden after he appeared to call supporters of former President Trump “garbage.”
“To turn around and call Trump supporters garbage, I’m like, at what point does everybody not get people are smart? They just want to know what you’re going to do to make their life better. They don’t want to be called a name,” Haley said Wednesday on her SiriusXM show “Nikki Haley Live.” “This isn’t a schoolyard, like stop.”
Biden sparked backlash on Tuesday after he appeared to compare Trump supporters to garbage while referring to the racist joke made by a comedian at the former president’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday.
Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe has received sharp criticism after he compared Puerto Rico to a “floating island of garbage.” The Trump campaign has tried to distance itself from that rhetoric.
The White House said Biden’s comments were referring to the rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally, not to Trump’s supporters, and provided a transcript of the comment, which included an apostrophe with “supporter’s,” to indicate Biden was referring to Hinchcliffe’s “demonization of Latinos” as “garbage.”
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s — 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,” Biden said, according to the transcript provided by the White House.
Biden also posted online to clarify that he was talking about Hinchcliffe’s rhetoric.
Still, Haley and others have been quick to say the president was talking about Republicans. Haley, the former United Nations ambassador, noted that she was also critical of the Trump campaign for having Hinchcliffe speak at its event.
“I’m amazed in this election how they have not realized, you don’t demean the other side,” she said. “Yesterday I came down hard on, you know, the people around Trump that allowed the comedian on stage and allowed this masculine romance stuff that keeps happening and said ‘be careful, that’s not what women want to hear.’”
Haley argued she was surprised Biden was in the White House when he made the comments and not supporting Vice President Harris at her Washington rally. Biden was on a call with Voto Latino, a major advocacy group for organizing Latino voters.
“Why wasn’t he at the rally? Why wasn’t he sitting next to Kamala’s husband? Why was he inside the White House talking to another group of people,” she said.
On Wednesday, Harris distanced herself from Biden’s comments, saying the president had clarified what he meant and adding she does not agree with criticizing people over who they vote for.
