Welcome back to your weekly update on US politics, where North America Bureau Chief Jade Macmillan keeps you up to date on the biggest developments in America as we approach Election Day on Tuesday.

Three months after his dramatic departure from the American elections, Joe Biden was not allowed to be a central figure in the final sprint between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

The president had been largely sidelined from his deputy’s campaign by the time he lined up to cast his ballot with other residents of his home state of Delaware this week.

When asked if it was a bittersweet moment ahead of the election he would be participating in, he emphasized that it was “just sweet.”

But within days, the president made exactly the kind of blunder that cast doubt on his candidacy in the first place.

Biden was responding to a widely condemned joke about Puerto Rico as a “floating island of trash” made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe during Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden.

Loading…

The official White House transcript explains how the president’s comments began to unravel.

“I don’t know the Puerto Rican that I know, or a Puerto Rico, where I come from. In my home state of Delaware, they are good, decent, honorable people,” he said.

But it was the next line of commentary that immediately grabbed attention.

“The only trash I see floating out there is that of his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and un-American.”

Loading…

Note the placement of the apostrophe in the transcript in the word “supporter’s”.

The president claims he was referring to what he calls Hinchcliffe’s “hateful rhetoric,” and not the former president’s supporters in general.

But the Trump campaign was quick to strike. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida interrupted a campaign rally in Pennsylvania to deliver the breaking news of Biden’s comments, drawing boos from the crowd.

“That’s terrible,” Trump responded. “Remember Hillary, she said ‘deplorable’… that didn’t work. I think ‘Garbage’ is worse, right?”

Trump drew a comparison to Hillary Clinton’s infamous 2016 comment that some of his supporters were a “basket full of deplorable people.”

He followed with a rally in North Carolina, where he claimed Biden had “finally said what he and Kamala really think of our supporters.”

But that wasn’t enough for Trump the showman.

At his next campaign stop in Wisconsin, he stepped off his plane dressed in a fluorescent orange vest before walking across the tarmac and onto a garbage truck decorated with Trump campaign signs.

“What do you think of my garbage truck?” he asked through the passenger seat window. “This truck is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”

Cutting through competitive controversies

The last few days before major elections become all the rage as candidates pick up the pace and media interest increases.

While the two “garbage” controversies have certainly provided distractions on both sides, it’s not clear whether either will have any meaningful impact on the campaign.

But Biden’s comments, during a phone call to a Latino voting group, were made around the same time his vice president was delivering one of her biggest speeches since securing the Democratic nomination.

Harris made a symbolic choice by delivering what was billed as her “closing argument” from the same spot near the White House where Trump gathered his supporters ahead of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

“Donald Trump has spent 10 years trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other,” she told the tens of thousands of people gathered around the National Mall.

“I will always listen to you, even if you don’t vote for me.”

Harris has put a lot of energy into reaching conservative voters who would normally vote Republican but cannot tolerate Trump.

At her rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania this week, I met Justin Warren – a “lifelong Republican” who has thrown his support behind the vice president.

He described Biden’s comments as a “terrible statement.”

‘I’m not going to try to explain why he would say that. You know it could have been a mistake or a blunder on his part. That’s wrong.’

However, he accepted the vice president’s response when she said she “strongly disagrees” with criticizing people based on who they vote for. And he didn’t think it would hurt her efforts to reach more voters on his side of politics.

“I quietly think there are a lot of Republicans who feel the same way I do,” he said.

“They’re just afraid to speak out.”

‘A long history of hatred’

Democrats had previously seized on the Hinchcliffe joke and used it to connect with Latino voters in the seven swing states where the election will likely be decided.

Trump’s team made the relatively rare move of issuing a statement after the Madison Square Garden rally saying the comedian’s views did not reflect those of the former president.

Trump later claimed that he did not know Hinchcliffe and that he had done more for Puerto Rico than any other president. But he did not publicly condemn the prank and defended the meeting more generally as a “love fest”.

People living on the island territory cannot vote in the presidential elections.

But there is a significant population of people with Puerto Rican ancestry living in areas such as the predominantly Latino city of Allentown, Pennsylvania, where Trump campaigned amid the fallout.

Some of his supporters there — including a woman with family in Puerto Rico — pointed out that it wasn’t Trump himself who made the “garbage” comment.

While Christian Rice, a 23-year-old boy dressed in an American flag jumpsuit, argued that this would change nothing given the ingrained views of Trump.

“Nobody votes for Trump because they think he’s an articulate, very respectful man,” he told me.

“He’s a guy who speaks his mind and the people around him speak their mind. I don’t think it’s helpful, but I don’t think it will change anything dramatically in the election cycle.”

A small group of Latino protesters marching outside the event didn’t see it that way.

“These recent comments are just a long history of hate,” said protester Armando Jimenez. “They say the quiet part out loud.”

One to keep an eye on: Worrying signs ahead?

The chaotic aftermath of the 2020 election has played a major role in preparations for next week.

Trump has claimed for years that election fraud cost him the presidency. This is despite extensive research that has found no evidence to support this.

Now Trump and some of his allies appear to be laying the groundwork to make a similar claim if he is defeated.

Loading…

Focal points have already emerged. Trump has made fraud claims in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County, where suspicious voter registration applications are being investigated.

Local officials emphasize that the detection of the potentially problematic forms shows that their systems are working.

Security has been stepped up at election offices, including in Arizona’s Maricopa County, where armed protesters gathered in 2020.

And concerns have been raised about Trump supporters trying to block the certification of election results at the state or local level.

If the outcome is close, legal challenges from both sides could continue for months. So while we’re in the final leg of the race, the finish line may be further away than it seems.

On that note, I’d like to take a moment to thank our readers for joining us for these weekly updates on what has been an extraordinary election so far.

See you on the other side.

Loading