The US presidential election
Panic among Democrats after the play: Mouth rolling on Biden
Nelly Kronstrand
Published 22.57
Trump seizes the opportunity - and continues to pour fuel on the fire after Biden's rubbish blunder.
Now Democrats want to gag the 81-year-old president.
- Ideally, you just want to put Biden in a corner until the election, says a source to Axios.
It has stormed around President Joe Biden in recent days - and criticism within his own party is growing.
The reason is the attention-grabbing statement about garbage.
- This time a real frog jumped out of Biden's mouth. It's not the first time, but this particular time it landed wrong with many Americans, says US expert Jan Hallenberg.
Criticism within the party
It was during a zoom call with
as Joe Biden criticized the Republican campaign rally in Madison Square Garden.
Comedian Tony Hinchcliffes was on stage in New York and called the island of Puerto Rico a "floating garbage dump".
- The only garbage that I see floating around is his supporters, countered Biden during the conversation with the non-profit organization.
The statement received so much criticism that the White House chose to publish a transcript of the president's Zoom call - word for word.
The White House argued that the comment was taken out of context and that Biden was not referring to Trump's voters but to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe's.
But according to several US experts, the damage was already done. Now Democrats are demanding that Biden stay in check until November 5th.
- Ideally, you just want to put Biden in a corner until the election, says a Democrat in a wave master state to Axios.
Harris is forced to distance himself
The Democrats want – according to the experts – to move forward in their election campaign and leave Biden's blunders behind. But Trump has other plans, reports CNN.
Most recently, during Wednesday's campaign rally in Wisconsin, the ex-president appeared in an orange and yellow warning vest.
- Biden should be ashamed, Trump said, referring to the president's trash-talking.
After the speech, Trump climbed into the driver's seat of a garbage truck and allowed himself to be photographed by reporters.
- Many people are upset. Now Biden didn't mean what he said, but the statement has come to life anyway, says US expert Jan Hallenberg.
He continues:
- Although Trump himself usually makes explosive statements about Harris, Biden or other leading politicians, he refrains from criticizing the voters or in any way implying that Democrats are the enemies of the people.
The day after Biden's statement, presidential candidate Kamala Harris chose to distance herself from Biden's statement.
- I absolutely do not think that you should criticize people based on how they vote, she told American reporters.
Biggest loser – the party
Jan Hallenberg calls Harris' statement mild.
- She did not directly criticize Biden, but answered broadly about the incident. I think it's about her not wanting to hang Biden out, at the same time she had to distance herself.
However, the US expert does not believe that the garbage debate has any major impact on the election.
- If it had been Harris who said it, instead it was Biden, it would have looked different. But I think this event has minimal impact.
At the same time, he believes that the Democrats have lost the opportunity to keep up criticism of Tony Hinchcliffe's joke that Puerto Rico is a "floating dump".
- There were many harsh statements that were made during the Republicans' election meeting. But with Biden saying what he said, it is difficult for the Democrats to attack.
He continues:
- So now Trump is taking every chance he can to spin this on.
