BREAKING: Joe Biden calls Trump supporters ‘garbage’ during Voto Latino call

Biden was speaking about the "good, decent honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there are his supporters," Biden said, referring to about half the American electorate. "His demonization of people is unconscionable and it's unAmerican." Biden said this while demonizing those voters who intend to or have already voted for Donald Trump to replace Biden and his VP Kamala Harris in office.

NBC News Senior White House Correspondent Gabe Gutierrez reported what Biden said: "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."

Politico wrote of the incident, saying "Biden, in a Zoom call with the organization Voto Latino, said 'the only garbage' was the 'hatred' of Trump supporters who said such things about American citizens." In the clip of Biden from this incident, he does not say "hatred of" but simply "his supporters."

The White House attempted to clean up the statement by insisting that Biden was referring to Trump's supporters' rhetoric. WH spokesman Andrew Bates released a transcript of the Zoom call that included an apostrophe in "supporters" in an attempt to make their case.

Biden himself attempted his own version of damage control, posting "Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump's supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage—which is the only word I can think of to describe it. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That's all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don't reflect who we are as a nation."

Trump himself responded to the comments live on stage in Pennsylvania: "You remember Hillary, she said deplorable, then she said irredeemable, right, but she said deplorable, that didn't work out. But I think garbage is worse, right?" Then he suggested forgiveness for Biden, who "really doesn't know" what he said.

The Trump campaign responded, too:

Earlier on Tuesday Biden had said "I'd like to take that guy for a swim out there" while he was speaking at a waterfront gathering. "I'm proud to announce we're delivering $3 billion in funding from my Inflation Reduction Act to help clean up and modernize ports in 27 different states and territories from Pennsylvania to Georgia, Michigan and beyond. Including, yes, Puerto Rico," Biden said, before referencing comedian Tony Hinchcliffe's joke about Puerto Rico being a "floating island of garbage."

"I'd like to take that guy for a swim out there," he said though it was unclear who "that guy" was, if it was Trump or perhaps Hinchcliffe.

"It is absolutely wild times, it really really is," Hinchcliffe joked at the rally on Sunday. "And you know, there's a lot going on. Like I don't know if you guys know this, but there's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it's called Puerto Rico." The island of Puerto Rico has a notorious trash and landfill problem.

The comedian's joke has been used going on days by partisan pundits and Democrat politicians to bolster their rhetoric that Trump is a fascist Nazi no better than Hiter Mussolini or Stalin. This rhetoric has not been received well by many in the electorate.