The ‘garbage’ controversy, explained

Less than one week before Election Day, the country is grappling with one word — “garbage” — and how that word has been used by a comedian and the president of the United States to describe Puerto Rico and its people or Trump supporters in the United States.
It started with former President Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden. Thousands descended on the iconic New York City venue (Trump’s hometown) for an eleventh hour rally stretching on for hours as supporters listened to speakers like Elon Musk, Dana White and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
But it was one speaker — a stand-up comedian — whose derogatory joke started this news cycle.
Tony Hinchcliffe, host of “Kill Tony” podcast, said during his set, “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 set included other crude and disparaging jokes about racial and ethnic groups.
The joke was met with criticism from both Democrats and Republicans — the Trump campaign soon distanced itself from the joke. Senior campaign adviser Danielle Alvarez said in a statement to Axios, “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
Later, Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity, “I mean, I don’t know if it’s a big deal or not, but I don’t want anybody making nasty jokes or stupid jokes. Probably he shouldn’t have been there.”
Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott went further and said the joke didn’t land with the audience for a reason. “It’s not funny and it’s not true,” he said on social media. “Puerto Ricans are amazing people and amazing Americans! I’ve been to the island many times. It’s a beautiful place. Everyone should visit! I will always do whatever I can to help any Puerto Rican in Florida or on the island.”
The camp of Vice President Kamala Harris cut ads from the rally in the aftermath in efforts to reach out to Latino voters — a group the Harris campaign has struggled to win over this election cycle. Harris herself responded to it on social media, saying Trump “showed us last night at Madison Square Garden that he is fixated on his grievances, himself, and dividing our country.”
Controversy continued stemming from this joke but also other comments made at the rally. New York City radio host Sid Rosenberg used foul language to describe Hillary Clinton and called Democrats “a bunch of degenerates.” Grant Cardone said Harris “will destroy the country.”
In the middle of this, Variety reached out to Madison Square Garden and James L. Dolan (the Dolan family owns the venue) for comment on the rally.
“As a business we are neutral in political matters. We rent to either side. We don’t censor artists, performers or speakers,” said a representative of Madison Square Garden to the entertainment outlet. The rep also reportedly noted President Joe Biden held a fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall in March — a venue owned and operated by Madison Square Garden.
And then the “garbage” controversy continued when a clip of Biden from an outreach call with Voto Latino went viral.
Speaking about the Madison Square Garden rally, Biden referenced the joke Hinchcliffe made and said Puerto Ricans were “good, decent, honorable people.” Then, Biden followed it up with, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters, his, 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.”
The president then tried to walk back his comments in a social media post.
“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,” he said on X. “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.”
The White House official transcript of Biden’s comments quotes him as saying, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s.” They punctuated it with an apostrophe and the letter “S” in an apparent reference to Hinchcliffe. But questions have also been raised about the transcript.
“This is disgusting,” Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance said on social media. “Kamala Harris and her boss Joe Biden are attacking half of the country. There’s no excuse for this. I hope Americans reject it.”
Responding to the comment on Truth Social, Trump said Harris was “running a campaign of hate” and added, “You can’t lead America if you don’t love the American People. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have shown they are both unfit to be President of the United States.
Harris herself and Harris surrogates like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro have distanced themselves from Biden’s comment.
When speaking to press on Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Harris said Biden did call her Tuesday night but they didn’t talk about the comment.
“Listen, I think that, first of all, he clarified his comments,” said Harris. “But let me be clear: I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”
Shapiro, one of Harris’ most vocal surrogates, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that he would never insult Pennsylvanians or any Americans for supporting candidates he didn’t support. This was after hearing the comments for the first time from Collins.
The swing state governor later added, “It’s certainly not words that I would choose, and I think it’s important that we remain focused on the contrast between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump and not attacking supporters of either candidate.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was peppered with questions about Biden’s comment on Wednesday. When Jean-Pierre was asked if Biden knew, when he made the comment, how it would be received, she said she wouldn’t get into the process.
What’s important, Jean-Pierre said, is Biden clarified what he meant.
“He took the extra step to clarify,” she said. “And, you know, you don’t see that from many elected officials, you certainly didn’t see that from the former president. And this president wanted to make sure it was not taken out of context.”
Also on Wednesday, The Hill reported Trump climbed into a Trump campaign branded garbage truck in his motorcade in Wisconsin.
“How do you like my garbage truck?” asked Trump from the truck, which has “Trump Make America Great Again! 2024″ splashed on it. “This truck is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden.”
Trump surrogate Vivek Ramaswamy posted a video of himself on social media climbing out of a garbage truck and putting garbage in the truck.
“We’re not the garbage, we’re *taking out* the garbage,” wrote Ramaswamy.