Kamala Harris promises to ‘represent all Americans’ after Biden’s remark on Trump supporters and ‘garbage’

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US Vice President Kamala Harris attend a campaign rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on October 30, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Supporters of Democratic presidential nominee US Vice President Kamala Harris attend a campaign rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on October 30, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 31 October 2024
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Kamala Harris promises to ‘represent all Americans’ after Biden’s remark on Trump supporters and ‘garbage’

  • Biden's off script remark causing a distraction for Harris in campaign’s home stretch
  • Republicans seized on Biden’s comments, saying they were an echo Hillary Clinton's remarks in 2016 that half of Trump’s supporters belonged in a “basket of deplorables”

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania: Kamala Harris called Wednesday for Americans to “stop pointing fingers at each other” as she tried to push past comments made by President Joe Biden about Donald Trump’s supporters and “garbage ” and keep the focus on her Republican opponent in the closing days of the race.

“We know we have an opportunity in this election to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump, who has been trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other,” the Democratic nominee said.

Harris was holding rallies in a trio of battleground states as part of a blitz in the closing week of the election, with stops Wednesday in Raleigh, North Carolina; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Madison, Wisconsin.

She stressed unity and common ground, expanding on her capstone speech Tuesday in Washington, where she laid out what her team called the “closing argument” of her campaign.
“I am not looking to score political points,” the vice president said. “I am looking to make progress.”




Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives at a campaign event at the PA Farm Show Complex and Expo Center on Oct. 30, 2024, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. (AP)

As she waited for Harris to take the stage in Raleigh, 35-year-old Liz Kazal said she was “cautiously optimistic” about the election. She’s tried to volunteer for the campaign every week, including making phone calls, knocking on doors with her toddler daughter and raising money for Harris’ candidacy.
“You hope for the best and plan for the worst,” Kazal said.

Meanwhile, the White House rushed to explain that the president’s comment about “garbage” was a reference to rhetoric from Trump allies, not Trump’s supporters themselves. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden “does not view Trump supporters or anybody who supports Trump as garbage.”
The controversy began Tuesday — at the same time Harris was speaking near the White House — when Biden participated in a campaign call organized by the Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino. Biden used the opportunity to criticize Sunday’s Madison Square Garden rally, where a comedian described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American,” Biden said. “It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”
Harris told reporters before boarding Air Force Two for her flight to Raleigh that she disagrees “with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”
“I will represent all Americans, including those who don’t vote for me,” she said.

Her words were an attempt to blunt the controversy over Biden’s comments and put some distance between herself and the president, something she has struggled with in the past.

Biden’s remarks prompted Harris on Tuesday to say that she strongly disagreed “with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”
Her aides were already frustrated by another Biden gaffe last week, when, speaking about Trump, he told Democratic campaign workers in New Hampshire that “We got to lock him up.”
He quickly caught himself to add: “Politically lock him up. Lock him out. That’s what we have to do.”
Harris supporters often chant “lock him up” at her rallies, a reference to Trump’s many ongoing criminal cases but also a nod to his own 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton, when his supporters chanted “lock her up.”
Harris always quiets the chant, telling the crowd: “The courts will take care of that. We’ll take care of November.”

Biden goes off script

It’s not the first time Biden has created problems by going off script. But the latest incident served as a particular distraction just as Harris was trying to deliver a high-profile “closing argument’ for her campaign emphasizing the need to unify the country after Trump’s divisiveness.
Shortly before Harris was about to speak Tuesday night to a massive rally crowd on a stretch of grass not far from the White House, Biden got on a call with a Hispanic advocacy group and commented on a comic’s recent insults at a Trump rally where he referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”




 US President Joe Biden playfully bites a baby during a trick-or-treaters celebration for a Halloween at the White House in Washington on Oct. 30, 2024. (REUTERS)

Biden said: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The president quickly sent out a social media post seeking to clarify his remarks about Trump. “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable,” Biden said. “That’s all I meant to say.”
But his sharp words were quickly seized on by Republicans who said he was denigrating Trump supporters.
Biden, who withdrew from the presidential race in July following a disastrous debate performance and near mutiny within his own party, has been largely absent from the campaign trail since then. But he’s intent on maintaining his relevance and cementing his legacy, and he has stepped up his political activity in recent days even as many in his party appear to be keeping their distance from him.

He has also stepped on her events at times. He made a surprise address to reporters in the White House briefing room just as Harris was about to go onstage in Michigan, and spoke from the Oval Office on Hurricane Helene, just Harris scrapped campaign events in Las Vegas to hurry back to Washington for a briefing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Harris, for her part, has been trying to differentiate herself from her unpopular boss. And she has been actively courting Republican voters.

“They’ve treated you like garbage”

Republicans claimed Biden’s comments were an echo of the time when Hillary Clinton, as the Democratic nominee in 2016, said half of Trump’s supporters belonged in a “basket of deplorables.”
“We know what they believe. Because look how they’ve treated you,” Trump said at his rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, on Wednesday. “They’ve treated you like garbage. The truth is, they’ve treated our whole country like garbage.”
He also said, “Without question, my supporters are far higher-quality than Crooked Joe’s,” using his nickname for the president.
After landing in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for another rally later in the day, Trump posed for photos while wearing a neon orange and yellow vest and sitting in the passenger seat of a garbage truck festooned with American flags and campaign signs.
“How do you like my garbage truck?” Trump said as he took questions from reporters.
“Joe Biden should be ashamed of himself, if he knows what he’s even doing,” Trump said.
Travis Waters, 54, who attended Harris’ second rally of the day in Harrisburg, shrugged off the commotion over Biden’s comments.
“Donald Trump has said so much about so many other groups and I don’t hear the media having the same outrage,” Waters said.

Trump's demonizing rhetoric glossed over

In attacking Biden — and by extension, Harris — Republicans have glossed over Trump’s own history of insulting and demonizing rhetoric, such as calling the United States a “garbage can for the world” or describing political opponents as “the enemy within.” Trump has also described Harris as a “stupid person” and “lazy as hell,” and he’s questioned whether she was on drugs.

Trump has also refused demands to apologize for the comment about Puerto Rico at his rally, acknowledging that “somebody said some bad things” but adding that he “can’t imagine it’s a big deal.”
Political attack lines have a history of occasionally boomeranging back on people who use them. For example, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, now Trump’s running mate, once described Democrats as beholden to “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made.”
Vance’s 3-year-old comments resurfaced once he became the vice presidential nominee, energizing Harris supporters who repurposed the label as a point of pride on shirts and bumper stickers — much like Trump’s supporters once cheerfully branded themselves as “deplorables.”
On Wednesday morning, Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, downplayed Biden’s comments in television interviews.
“Let’s be very clear, the vice president and I have made it absolutely clear that we want everyone as a part of this,” he told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric is what needs to end.”
In Harrisburg, Harris parried repeated interruptions from pro-Palestinian protesters objecting to her support for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
“Ours is about a fight for democracy and your right to be heard,” Harris said as one protester shouted. “That is what is on the line in this election.”
She added: “Look everybody has a right to be heard, but right now I am speaking.”


Germany’s top diplomat in Kyiv as Ukraine girds for impact of US election on the war

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Germany’s top diplomat in Kyiv as Ukraine girds for impact of US election on the war

KYIV, Ukraine: Germany’s top diplomat arrived Monday in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on an unannounced visit, in what appeared to be a show of European support for Ukraine on the eve of a US presidential election that could bring far-reaching changes in Washington’s policy toward Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbor.
Germany is Ukraine’s second biggest weapons supplier after the US, and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock vowed that Berlin’s backing would remain steadfast.
“Together with many partners around the world, Germany stands firmly by Ukraine’s side,” she said, German news agency dpa reported. “We will support the Ukrainians for as long as they need us so that they can continue on their path to a just peace.”
The war is at a critical moment for Ukraine, with the Russian army making creeping gains on the battlefield and another hard winter ahead after Russia relentlessly battered the Ukrainian power grid.
Ahead of the US vote, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky attempted to lock Ukraine’s Western supporters into a long-term “victory plan,” including a formal invitation for Ukraine to join NATO and permission to use Western long-range missiles to strike military targets in Russia, but the response was disappointing for Kyiv officials.
Russia is using its superior numbers to heap pressure on Ukrainian positions along the front line. Ukraine’s top commander, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Saturday his troops are struggling to hold back “one of the most powerful (Russian) offensives” of the war.
Russia is now adding to its offensive push what Western intelligence sources say is a force of about 10,000 North Korean combat troops sent by Pyongyang under a pact with Moscow.
That has deepened Zelensky’s frustration with Western help. On Saturday, he urged allies to stop “watching” and take steps before the North Korean troops reach the battlefield.
Zelensky said Kyiv knows at which Russian camps the North Korean troops are being trained but Ukraine can’t strike them without permission from allies to use the Western-made long-range weapons to hit targets deep inside Russia.
Baerbock arrived in Kyiv hours after debris from drones intercepted by air defenses fell in two districts of the city, starting small fires, officials said. No people or property were harmed, according to the head of the Kyiv city administration, Serhii Popko.
A Russian glide bomb attack on Sunday night injured 15 people in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the northeast, regional police said.
Russia fired some 80 Shahed drones at Ukrainian cities overnight, Ukraine’s air force said.

Pakistan anti-polio drive struggles against militants, mistrust

Updated 19 min 46 sec ago
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Pakistan anti-polio drive struggles against militants, mistrust

  • Cases in Pakistan are on the rise, with 45 registered so far this year, up from six in 2023 and only one in 2021

Peshawar: Militant attacks and suspicion stemming from misinformation are hampering Pakistan’s battle to eradicate polio, but teams of dedicated volunteer health workers are determined to fight on.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where the debilitating virus remains endemic, the disease mostly affecting children under five and sometimes causing lifelong paralysis.
Cases in Pakistan are on the rise, with 45 registered so far this year, up from six in 2023 and only one in 2021.
Polio can easily be prevented by the oral administration of a few drops of vaccine, but in parts of rural Pakistan health workers risk their lives to save others.
Last week seven people including five children were killed when a bomb targeted police traveling to guard vaccine workers. Days earlier two police escorts were gunned down by militants.
“When we hear that a polio vaccination team has been attacked, it deeply saddens us,” said health worker Zainab Sultan, 28, as she went door to door in Panam Dehri in northwest Pakistan
“Our responsibility now is to continue our work. Our job is to protect people from disability, to vaccinate children, and to make them healthy members of society.”
In the past firebrand clerics falsely claimed the vaccine contained pork or alcohol, forbidding it for consumption by Muslims.
A fake vaccination campaign organized by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Pakistan in 2011 to track Osama bin Laden compounded the mistrust.
More recently, militant groups have shifted to targeting armed police escorts in their campaigns of violence against the state.
Pakistan has witnessed a dramatic uptick in attacks since the return of the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021, with Islamabad claiming hostile groups are now operating from there.
“In our area, nearly half of the parents were initially resistant to the polio vaccine, believing it to be a ploy by the West,” said local resident Ehsanullah, who goes by one name.
“There was a lack of awareness,” he said. “If this disease is spreading because of our reluctance, we are not just harming ourselves but the entire community.”
From previously being blamed for the mistrust of polio vaccines, some religious leaders — who wield immense authority in Pakistan — are now at the forefront of the campaign to convince parents.
“All major religious schools and scholars in Pakistan have debunked the rumors surrounding the polio vaccine,” said Imam Tayyab Qureshi.
“Those who attack polio vaccination teams have no connection to Islam or humanity,” he said in the provincial capital of Peshawar, where Panam Dehri lies on the outskirts.
For one parent in Panam Dehri, the endorsement by religious chiefs proved pivotal.
“Initially I did not vaccinate my children against polio. Despite everyone’s efforts, I refused,” said 40-year-old Zulfiqar, who uses one name.
“Later, the Imam of our mosque came to explain the importance of the polio vaccine, telling me that he personally vaccinated his own children and encouraged me to do the same,” he said.
“After that, I agreed.”
Another impediment can be that parents in impoverished areas use the government’s eagerness to vaccine as a bargaining chip, attempting to negotiate investment in water and road projects.
“There are demand-based boycotts and community boycotts that we face,” lamented Ayesha Raza, spokeswoman for the government polio eradication campaign.
“Your demands may be very justified, but don’t link it to your children’s health,” she pleads to them.
For some health workers, the battle to eradicate polio is more personal.
Hobbling door-to-door in Panam Dehri, polio survivor Ismail Shah’s paralyzed leg does not slow his mission.
“I decided in my childhood that when I grew up I would fight against the disease that disabled me,” said the 35-year-old.
Shah is among 400,000 volunteers and health workers who spent the past week patiently explaining to families that the oral innoculation — administered in two doses — is safe.
Their goal is to protect 45 million children, but it’s far from straightforward. When Shah arrived in his patch of 40,000 inhabitants there were more than 1,000 refusals.
“Now, there are only 94 reluctant parents left, and soon I will persuade them as well,” he said.


Four wounded by axe in fight on Paris suburban train

Updated 46 min 47 sec ago
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Four wounded by axe in fight on Paris suburban train

PARIS: Four people were wounded, two of them seriously, by an axe wielded during a fight that erupted Monday on a suburban train outside Paris, a police source said.
One of the victims had a hand cut off and another had their skull split open, the source added, asking not to be named.
Two others were more lightly injured.
Several people, some of them minors, were involved in the fight that broke out around around 8:00 am (0700 GMT), the source added.
The incident happened while the RER suburban express train was at the station of Ozoir-la-Ferriere southeast of Paris.
Since the train was halted at a station, the violence did not affect traffic on the RER E line, which runs east-west through Paris and its suburbs, state rail operator SNCF said.


Russia to launch two Iranian satellites on Nov. 5, Tehran’s Moscow envoy says

Updated 04 November 2024
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Russia to launch two Iranian satellites on Nov. 5, Tehran’s Moscow envoy says

  • Russia launched an Iranian research-sensing satellite, Pars 1, into space in February using a Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome

Russia will launch two Iranian satellites into orbit using a Soyuz launcher on Tuesday, Iran’s ambassador to Moscow said on Monday, as the two US-sanctioned countries deepen their scientific relationship.
“In continuation of the development of Iran-Russia scientific and technological cooperation, two Iranian satellites, Kowsar and Hodhod, will be launched to a 500 km orbit of earth on Tuesday, Nov. 5, by a Soyuz launch vehicle,” Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali said in a post on X.
The development of Kowsar, a high-resolution imaging satellite, and Hodhod, a small communications satellite, is the first substantial effort by Iran’s private space sector, a report by Iran’s semi-official news agency Tasnim said last month.
Russia launched an Iranian research-sensing satellite, Pars 1, into space in February using a Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome.


36 dead in bus crash in Indian Himalayas

Updated 04 November 2024
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36 dead in bus crash in Indian Himalayas

  • Hundreds of people die in road accidents in India every year
  • Indian PM offers condolences to victims of bus accident 

Dehradun, India: A bus in India plunged into a deep Himalayan ravine on Monday, killing at least 36 passengers and injuring several others, a government official said Monday.

Photographs released by government rescue teams showed the crumpled wreckage of the bus in thick undergrowth, with the twisted front of the vehicle squashed nearly flat.

Road accidents are common along the many mountainous roads in the Himalayan region, caused mostly by poor maintenance and reckless driving in the tortuous terrain.

“So far, 36 casualties have been confirmed,” Deepak Rawat, a senior official from the northern state of Uttarakhand told reporters.

“Three critically injured have been sent to hospital using a helicopter.”

A human chain of volunteers lined the steep slopes, and across a rushing river, helping pull out the wounded from the remains of the bus. Dead bodies were carried out and laid on the back of a truck.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his “deepest condolences to those who have lost their loved ones in the unfortunate road accident.”

Modi’s office said in a statement that the families of those killed would receive 200,000 rupees ($2,380) in support, while those injured would get 50,000 ($595).

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said he had ordered an investigation into the accident, which took place in forested hills near the town of Almora.

Hundreds of people die in road accidents in India every year.