Completely missed taking advantage of the fade

 

The US presidential election
Biden sets the hook for Kamala

Wolfgang Hansson

This is a commenting text. Analysis and positions are the writer's.

Published 20.35

Quick version

• President Joe Biden's statement about Trump supporters as "garbage" risks damaging Kamala Harris's chances in the election, similar to how Hillary Clinton's 2016 statement was believed to have cost her the victory.
•  Biden's frog came at an attempt to comment on Republican mistakes during a Trump rally, where a comedian mocked Puerto Ricans, but instead Biden created more focus on his own negative statements.
• Harris' campaign sees Biden's low popularity and past mistakes as liabilities rather than assets, and now Biden's statement has provided new challenges to deal with shortly before the election.

WASHINGTON DC. It is difficult to understand how experienced American politicians time and again step on the piano.

By calling Trump supporters "trash," President Biden may well ruin Kamala Harris's chances of victory.

Many believe Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election when she similarly mocked Trump voters.

I was there last night behind the White House when Kamala Harris gave her big speech in front of 75,000 people in Washington. A speech she called her closing argument.

She tried to portray herself as a warm, humble and committed politician who defends democracy and contrasted that with Trump's buffoonery and talk of election fraud.

But while she was doing her best to win over the small group of undecided voters, Joe Biden was doing his best to sabotage her chances.

Certainly not on purpose. But that is what could be the dramatic consequence of his statement.

From the Oval Office, he commented in a digital meeting with Latino voters on the election rally Donald Trump had on Sunday in Madison Square Garden in New York. One of the detractors was the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe who called people from Puerto Rico "a floating island of garbage".

An own goal by the Republicans that the Democrats quickly tried to take advantage of. There are large groups of Puerto Rican voters in many of the swing states. That is, voters who can have a direct influence on the outcome of the election.

But instead of capitalizing on the Republicans' mistakes, Biden countered by jumping into the crazy barrel himself.

He began by talking about how hardworking and important this immigrant group is to the United States but went on to say:

- The only trash I see floating around is Trump supporters.

Joe Biden. Photo: Daniel Kucin Jr. / AP

Within minutes, the Trump campaign had picked up on the president's statement. They are trying to create similar attention to this as they did around Hillary Clinton's words at the end of the 2016 election campaign when she called Trump voters "a basket of deplorables". Pretty much a bunch of deplorable people.

Things like this are of course difficult to measure, but many experts believe that her way of openly looking down on Trump's voters cost her the election victory. The statement further cemented that she was part of the hatted establishment.

Even that election was extremely even. A few tens of thousands of votes in a few swing states made Trump president instead of Hillary.

The situation is the same now. The opinion polls show that the difference in most states between Trump and Harris is less than one percent. Even very small shifts within the electorate can have extremely great significance.
 That's way Harris and her campaign management have to be gnashing their teeth right now. They do everything to get her elected and then her own boss sets the hook for her.

Biden quickly tried to explain his statement by saying that what he meant was that the views expressed by the comedian were rubbish. But the question is whether voters believe his clarification.

Trump's running mate JD Vance has called on Kamala Harris to apologize for and distance herself from Biden's statement that "offended tens of millions of Americans."

Kamala Harris. Photo: Susan Walsh/AP

Joe Biden has played a sensationally minor role in the campaign so far. Normally, a president would campaign for a vice president to help get him elected.

But Harris has not wanted Biden's help. Partly because the president has low popularity figures. Partly because in recent weeks he seemed even older and spoke even more slurred. Harris' campaign sees Biden as more of a drain than a helper.

Now they got water on their mill.

It's not the first time Biden has lost his way in this election campaign. In one of his rare appearances for Harris in New Hampshire last week, Biden said Trump "must be locked up." Then he added that he believed he should be locked up politically.

With less than a week to go until Election Day, this type of mistake can have a big impact and a big impact. Both campaigns try to find flaws in the opponent to strike against.

Without distancing himself from Hinchcliffe's "joke" about Puerto Ricans being trash, Trump has tried to distance himself by calling his rally in Madison Garden a "love fest."

A characteristic that I think few people would share. A number of the statements made at the meeting were downright racist and have led to a serious backlash for the Trump campaign, which has been forced into extensive damage control.

Trump speakers' statements dominate the news on all cable channels but have now been joined by Biden's miss.

That is precisely why it is particularly unfortunate, seen in the eyes of Kamala Harris, that Biden contributes ammunition to the Trump side.