Last updated: Thursday, October 31, 2024 2:10AM GMT
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Six days until Election Day, much of the political debate is about "garbage."
First, the backlash over a comedian's racist comments about Puerto Rico that former President Donald Trump has not apologized for -- and now President Joe Biden appearing to call Trump's supporters "garbage" and stepping on Vice President Kamala Harris' message of unity aimed at attracting disaffected Republicans.
As of 5:20 p.m. ET on Wednesday, more than 57 million Americans have voted early, according to the Election Lab at the University of Florida.
Of the total number of early votes, 30,233,685 were cast in person and 27,179,332 were returned by mail.
Voters wait to cast their ballots at the Rutherford County Annex Building on the first day of early voting, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in Rutherfordton, N.C.
Oct 30, 2024, 12:28 AM GMT
Harris closes her speech with a final appeal to voters
Vice President Kamala Harris urged voters Tuesday to "start writing the next chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told" by rejecting former President Donald Trump.
The crowd cheers as Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to deliver remarks during an event near the White House in Washington, Oct. 29, 2024.
"The United States of America is the greatest idea humanity ever devised," Harris said. "In seven days, we have the power, each of you has the power, to turn the page, and start writing the next chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told," she added.
Oct 30, 2024, 9:51 AM GMT
Biden angers Republicans by associating 'garbage' with Trump supporters
President Joe Biden has drawn fire from Republicans due to comments he made at a Voto Latino campaign call Tuesday night -- when his wording seemed to be referring to the supporters of former President Donald Trump as "garbage."
"Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a 'floating island of garbage,'" Biden said, according to a video clip on CNN.
He went on to call Puerto Ricans "good, decent, honorable people" before adding, "The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters."
The comment was followed by: "His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it's un-American. It's totally contrary to everything we've done, everything we've been."
President Joe Biden has drawn fire from Republicans due to comments he made at a Voto Latino campaign call Tuesday night
Republicans quickly pounced on the comment, comparing it to Hillary Clinton's "basket of deplorables" comment in 2016.
Sen. Marco Rubio broke the news to Trump onstage as he campaigned in Allentown, Philadelphia.
Trump responded, "Remember, Hilary said 'deplorable.'"
"That didn't work out," he continued. "'Garbage' I think is worse, right?"
Trump Campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded by saying, "Joe Biden and Kamala Harris hate America and don't deserve four more years. Kamala must answer for this disgraceful attack on tens of millions of Americans."
The new controversy comes one week out from the election, and on the night that Vice President Kamala Harris delivered her closing campaign message on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C.
"The President referred to the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as 'garbage,'" a White House spokesperson said in a statement.
A transcript of the remarks given to ABC News by the White House has an apostrophe at the end of "supporter's," but it is unclear from the video of Biden's remarks whether the president meant that word in the possessive.
President Joe Biden speaks at the Port of Baltimore in Baltimore, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024.
A spokesman for Harris' campaign referred ABC News to the White House's official statement.
Biden responded shortly afterward with a post on X, saying that it was specifically the "hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump's supporter" that he was calling "garbage."
-ABC News' Justin R. Gomez
Oct 30, 2024, 12:17 AM GMT
Trump claims the Harris campaign bused people to Washington rally
Trump claimed during his rally in Allentown that the Harris campaign had bused people to Washington "because they couldn't get anybody to show up there tonight."
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks for a campaign rally at PPL Center, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, in Allentown, Pa.
The Harris campaign touted that more than 75,000 people had gathered on the National Mall for Harris' remarks tonight at the same venue where Trump spoke ahead of the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Oct 30, 2024, 12:06 AM GMT
Harris invokes Trump's role in Jan. 6 riot at the Ellipse
Vice President Kamala Harris stressed former President Donald Trump's role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, while standing on the same stage he did that preceded the riot.
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives onstage at a campaign rally in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024.
"Americans died as a result of that attack. 140 law enforcement officers were injured because of that attack," Harris said.
