President Joe Biden is facing backlash for the way he responded to offensive comments made about the Puerto Rican community at a Trump Rally on Sunday.
During the event, insult-style comedian Tony Hinchcliffe said, "There's literally a floating island of garbage right now, yeah, I think it’s called Puerto Rico."
On a video call for Latino voter outreach Tuesday, Biden addressed the offensive remarks, saying, "The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization is seen as unconscionable, and it's un-American."
The White House followed up and Biden posted this clarification on social media, saying in part:
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"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. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That's all I meant to say."
Connecticut's Republican Chairman Ben Proto is calling out Biden for what he said.
"That should never be the case for the President of United States to refer to the people he represents or half of the people he represents as garbage," Proto said.
Bridgeport's City Council President Aidee Nieves, a member of the state's Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, condemned the joke made over the weekend at the East Side Senior Center Wednesday.
"We are here together to address what to me and to many of us has been a visceral attack on my culture and heritage, Puerto Rico," Nieves said.
Senator Richard Blumenthal was one of many democratic leaders who spoke at the event. He said Biden was taken out of context and did not mean what he said.
"It was trash talk, and I think that's what President Biden meant. It was talk that was beneath us as Americans," Blumenthal said.
Heidi Melillo from Middletown said she'll be heading to the polls next week and told us she felt that neither comment should have made.
"I think everybody was just in the wrong. Two wrongs don't make a right," Melillo said.
