DONALD TRUMP PULLED an election stunt by boarding a garbage truck to highlight muddled remarks made by US President Joe Biden about his supporters.
Biden caused controversy with the remarks in a campaign call on Tuesday, as he addressed a row that erupted after one of Trump’s warm-up speakers at a New York rally referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”
Speaking on the video call aimed at encouraging people to vote, he said: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters”.
The president tried to clarify the comment afterwards, saying he had intended to say Trump’s demonisation of Latinos was unconscionable.
Democratic nominee Kamala Harris sought to distance herself from the remark when she was asked about it, telling reporters that Biden had clarified his comment and that she strongly disagreed “with any criticism of people based on who they vote for”.
Last night, Trump walked down the steps of the Boeing 757 that bears his name in Green Bay, Wisconsin, walked across a rain-soaked tarmac and, after twice missing the handle, climbed into the passenger seat of the white garbage truck that also carried his name.
“How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said, wearing an orange and yellow safety vest. “This is in honour of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
He again tried to distance himself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke had set off the firestorm, but did not denounce it. He also said he did not need to apologise to Puerto Ricans.
“I don’t know anything about the comedian,” he said. “I don’t know who he is. I’ve never seen him. I heard he made a statement, but it was a statement that he made. He’s a comedian, what can I tell you. I know nothing about him.”
A spokesperson for Trump said the joke does not reflect his views, but the former president has not addressed it himself.
“I love Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico loves me,” Trump said from the garbage truck.
He ended the brief appearance by telling reporters: “I hope you enjoyed this garbage truck. Thank you very much.”
When he took the stage a short time later, he was still wearing the orange vest.
While Republicans have voiced outrage over Biden’s remarks, anti-Trump political group The Lincoln Project shared a video from the Republican’s 7 September rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin in which he called “the people that surround” the vice president “garbage.”
Trump had just attacked Harris over employment figures before he said: “And it’s not her, it’s the people that surround her. They’re scum. They’re scum, and they want to take down our country. They are absolute garbage.”
Meanwhile, Harris traveled to North Carolina and onward to Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, focusing again on three of seven battleground states that could determine who wins the closest election in modern US history.
In Madison, Wisconsin she told supporters: “Folks are exhausted and want it to stop, the pointing fingers. It is time that we start locking arms together as a people who rise and fall together.”
More than 57 million have already cast their ballots via early or mail-in voting, over a third of the 2020 total.
Trump – who has 34 felony convictions for crimes connected to the 2016 election – is expected to reject Tuesday’s result if he loses.
The Republican is already seizing on commonplace verification processes by election officials to amplify his claims of widespread “cheating.”
In North Carolina, Harris hammered home her campaign’s message to “turn the page” on Trump, leading the crowd in chants of “we are not going back!”
“This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance and out for unchecked power,” said Harris.
In Washington, Harris had spoken at the very spot where Trump stirred up a mob that went on to attack the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 in a violent attempt to keep him in power even though he lost the 2020 election to Biden.
Trump has taken to social media to repeat his claims of voter fraud, appearing to set the stage for a repeat performance around the unfounded claim that his 2020 loss to Biden was rigged.
He denounced what he said was “cheating” at “large-scale levels never seen before” in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania.
At his North Carolina rally, Trump again cast doubt on the fairness of voting machines and called for a return to paper ballots.
His campaign on Wednesday made a fresh plea for campaign donations by referencing Biden’s comments.
But one person who will not be voting for Trump on 5 November will be actor and former Republican governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, who endorsed Harris.
“Rejecting the results of an election is as un-American as it gets,” he said of Trump.
Inflation and the economy have been key issues this election, and on Wednesday new data showed solid economic growth despite a slight slowdown.
With reporting from © AFP 2024
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