US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris talks to reporters before boarding Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on October 30, 2024.
US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris talks to reporters before boarding Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on October 30, 2024. AFP News

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris sought to distance herself Wednesday from comments by US President Joe Biden appearing to refer to Republican Donald Trump's supporters as "garbage."

Biden caused a firestorm with the remarks in a campaign call on Tuesday, as he addressed a row that erupted after one of Trump's warm-up speakers at a New York rally referred to Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage."

"Listen, I think that first of all, he clarified his comments," Vice President Harris told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, near Washington, when asked about her boss's words.

"But let me be clear, I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for."

As she headed back on the campaign trail, Harris, 60, insisted she would be a "president for all Americans, whether you vote for me or not."

At a campaign stop in the southern city of Raleigh, North Carolina, Harris added: "Unlike Donald Trump, I don't believe people who disagree with me are the enemy."

Republicans pounced on Biden's comments, which threatened to overshadow a major election speech by Harris outside the White House on Tuesday in which she called for unity instead of what she said was chaos and division under Trump.

"Biden finally said what he and Kamala really think of our supporters," Trump told a rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. "You can't lead America if you don't love Americans."

The row over the remarks by the 81-year-old Biden, who dropped out of the White House race in July, also underscored his growing marginalization from the Harris campaign.

US media have reported that Harris aides have feared that Biden is an electoral liability and have rejected his suggestions to make joint appearances on the campaign trail.

Some Democratic lawmakers representing areas with significant Republican electorates have also felt forced to distance themselves from the controversy.

"Any elected official or candidate who calls Americans or America 'garbage' is flat out wrong," said Representative Jared Golden.

"We don't need leaders to add fuel to partisan fires that are dividing us," added Golden, who is in a tough reelection race in the northeastern state of Maine.

Biden made his comments in a video call with the nonprofit VotoLatino and they went viral shortly afterwards.

"The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters," said Biden. "His, his, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and it's un-American."

Biden later said on X, formerly Twitter, that he had "referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump's supporter" -- singular.

"That's all I meant to say," he said.

The White House later released a transcript adding a single apostrophe -- claiming that Biden said "supporter's" instead of "supporters," in a bid to back up his assertion that he was referring to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe's comments at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally.