Harris speech overshadowed by Biden gaffe

It was to be her closing argument – a set-piece primetime speech in which Kamala Harris, just yards from the White House, set out her final pitch to voters – seeking to draw a contrast with Donald Trump’s own closing event, which was marred by racist and misogynistic remarks. But sitting in the building behind her, Joe Biden managed to overshadow the big moment with a gaffe.

Up to 40 thousand supporters, press – and some protesters – made their way to Washington D.C.’s Ellipse on Tuesday night. Some of the arrangements might have felt haphazard – with supporters queuing for hours and trudging through a warren of security pens, marshalled chaotically by volunteers.

But the choice of venue could not have been more deliberate. On the exact spot where Donald Trump stood on January 6th 2021 and called on his supporters to “fight like hell”, Harris gave a closing argument. A response to and, she hoped, repudiation of Donald Trump – and crucially one designed to win over any of his wavering former voters.

At the allotted time, the thumping sound system, flashing lights and Beyonce signature tune gave way to a speech that was, in truth, pretty unspectacular.

Soaring oratory this was not, but Kamala Harris probably hoped Americans would focus as much on the place she’d chosen to deliver her final message, as the message itself.

“We know who Donald Trump is”, she said. “He is the person who stood at this very spot and sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election.”

At the most pointed moment, she portrayed the former President as a man who would jeopardise a 250 year-long American struggle for democracy:  “America was born when we wrested freedom from a petty tyrant”, she said.  The generations who fought at Normandy and marched at Selma, “did not struggle, sacrifice, and lay down their lives, only to see us cede our fundamental freedoms, only to see us submit to the will of another petty tyrant.”

But little did she know, as the crowd roared in approval, Joe Biden, supposedly safely tucked away in the White House behind her, was busy undermining her message with yet another garbled message of his own…

In a campaign call with the Voto Latino voter advocacy group, he was addressing the offensive jokes at Donald Trump’s own closing argument, in New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s’ -” Biden said, or appeared to say, which many interpreted as Trump’s supporters.

The very same supporters who cheered the warm up act at Trump’s New York rally, a shock comedian who dismissed the American territory of Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean.”

Biden immediately understood his error and tried to clarify the remark. He’d put an apostrophe in the wrong place, he said, claiming he was referring to the comedian’s demonization of Latinos as garbage NOT Trump’s supporters.

But the damage was done and his words were already being weaponised.

A flurry of fundraising emails from the Trump campaign attacked Harris, Biden and the Democrats.

“You are not garbage! I love you!” said one from Trump.

JD Vance, who had initially told people to “stop getting so offended” about the Puerto Rican slur, was suddenly offended himself. “I’m not going to lie, when Biden called you garbage last night, it really struck a nerve. Actually, it really pissed me off.”

Speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania, Senator Marco Rubio told the crowd about Biden’s remarks: “I hope their campaign is about to apologise for what Joe Biden has just said. We are not garbage, we are patriots who love America!”

And on the same stage, Donald Trump immediately drew parallels to Hilary Clinton’s infamous dismissal of some of his supporters in 2016 as a basket of deplorables: “Remember Hillary, she said ‘deplorable’ and then she said irredeemable, right? But she said deplorable and that didn’t work out. Garbage I think is worse, right?”

On Wednesday morning, Kamala Harris found herself in damage limitation mode, rather than revelling in the afterglow of her speech. Notably, rather than sticking up for Joe Biden, she distanced herself: “I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”

It’s not clear how much damage this will actually do to Kamala Harris’ campaign. Let’s face it, most people roll their eyes at Biden’s gaffes these days and crucially it was HIS gaffe, not hers. But for sure, it’s an unwanted distraction for Harris with less than a week to go before election day.

And – if she needed one – a sharp reminder of the jeopardy for her – attached to a gaffe-prone unpopular President, while simultaneously trying to present herself as the fresh face of the future.