CBS’s Tony Dokoupil Asks Tim Walz If Nazi Comparisons and Biden’s ‘Garbage’ Comment ‘Undercut’ Harris’s ‘Message of Unity’
CBS Mornings co-anchor Tony Dokoupil kicked off a Wednesday interview with Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz by asking if President Joe Biden’s controversial “garbage” comment and others from Democrats comparing Republicans to Nazis “undercut” the Harris-Walz campaign’s closing message of unity.
Dokoupil noted comparisons between former President Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden event this week and a Nazi rally by Walz and others, as well as Biden’s controversial “garbage” comment when discussing the same event. Biden earned backlash this week after he appeared to refer to Trump supporters as “garbage” in a video.
Biden and the White House have attempted to clarify the remark by adding an apostrophe to the transcript where Biden said “supporters” so it reads “supporter’s.” According to the White House, Biden was referring only to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who has set off a firestorm of controversy since the Madison Square Garden event, where he jokingly referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating pile of garbage.”
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American,” the transcript reads.
“I want to get your reaction to the president’s comments, but I want to put it into a larger context of your recent comment comparing the Sunday Trump rally to a Nazi rally, and I would also throw in there Obama’s bitter clingers guns and religion comment from awhile back, the deplorable line from Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and the way that Democrats are seen by some voters as disrespecting them, and I have to ask, does that undercut this closing message of unity from your campaign?” Dokoupil asked the Minnesota governor.
“No, certainly not,” Walz said, going on to note that he’s represented “rural areas” that have plenty of Republicans for years.
The governor went on to blame Trump’s rhetoric for inspiring “passions” in his critics.
“The frustration we’ve seen since Jan. 6, the frustration with Donald Trump’s rhetoric of division, it does fire passions, and I think both President Biden was very clear that he’s speaking the rhetoric we heard at that [event], so it doesn’t undermine it,” he said. “People are hungry to come back together.”
Vice President Kamala Harris also responded to Biden’s comments on Wednesday, telling reporters she disagrees with referring to Trump’s supporters as “garbage” and noting the president has clarified his remarks.
Watch above via CBS.
