Morning Glory: Yes, the president really said ‘garbage’

“Garbage.”

Elections of the past are recalled by different people differently, and if asked about a specific cycle they will give various answers: Governor Michael Dukakis in the tank. Senator Kerry’s “I actually did vote for the $87 billion — before I voted against it.” President George H.W. Bush looking at his watch. Senator Robert Dole’s “Where’s the outrage?”

President Donald Trump has a long list of memory cues both good and bad from his three races for the top job and Vice President Harris’s “I was raised in a middle class family” seemed destined for first place in the memory game about her cycle until this week. 

Now it seems certain that “garbage,” not Harris’s upbringing in the middle class or “assassination attempts” (plural) is in fact the election handle to which most people will hang for years and years. And not because of the insult comic that most Americans had never heard of but who definitely did some damage to Team Trump, but because of the current president of the United States labeling Trump supporters as “garbage.”

The variety of responses to President Joe Biden’s characterization of at least 74 million Trump voters as “garbage” defies column length. But whether you want to downplay Biden’s deliberate word choice or spend the next five days talking about nothing else, that one word presidential slam of half the country is now tattooed on this election. Years down the road when Joe Rogan has come and gone, and “fascist” returns to a particular definition, writers will still be penning paragraphs on President Biden’s decision to speak on the Vice President’s big night and on the specific slander on Trump supporters. 

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Some have attempted to dismiss the importance of the president’s insult—including some of the same people who thought the undercard insult comic was a “turning point” in campaign 2024. Consistent standards vanished from legacy media long ago. They are, for the most part, the “communications arm of the DNC” to quote the “fellas” at the Ruthless Podcast.

Others have argued it was a very intentional clipping of Kamala as “garbage” will be Red Bull for Trump voters who might have otherwise stayed home. We just don’t know about the impact of Joe Biden’s unexpected cameo Monday night. We just know it will be part of every serious account of election 2024. 

THE VIEW DISMISSES OUTRAGE OVER PRESIDENT BIDEN’S ‘GARBAGE’ COMMENT

Whether Vice President Harris’s interview with Shannon Sharpe on the Club Shay Shay pod from last week makes it into the top ten “moments” seems unlikely because, for whatever reason, legacy media chose not to cover that podcast (which is probably the Vice President’s absolutely worst interview though Mary Katharine Ham, host of the the Getting Hammered pod, seems to believe the Brene Brown conversation was her hitting bottom.)

Harris is simply a terrible candidate. Line up all the major party candidates from Ike forward, and she was the least prepared to run (and she didn’t expect to run in fairness to her) and the candidate who has demonstrated the fewest skills necessary to be president, beginning with the ability to communicate with the American people. 

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It looks like Trump will win a second term on Tuesday night, but after 2016 the informed guesses mean nothing. We don’t know. But we do know President Biden should deliver a heartfelt apology to the American people. He promised a much different presidency than one ending on such a note. We have to hope he recognizes this and draws a line under his remark and urges future presidents to never get close to it again.

Hugh Hewitt is host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990.  Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.

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