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

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

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.”


Ukraine-US talks end without agreement on critical minerals deal

Ukraine-US talks end without agreement on critical minerals deal
Updated 15 February 2025
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Ukraine-US talks end without agreement on critical minerals deal

Ukraine-US talks end without agreement on critical minerals deal
  • Trump has said he wants $500 billion in rare earth minerals from Kyiv and that Washington’s support needs to be “secured”
  • Zelensky said he was offering a mutually beneficial partnership to develop them jointly and not “giving them away”

KYIV/MUNICH: Talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US Vice President JD Vance ended in Munich on Friday without an announcement of a critical minerals deal that is central to Kyiv’s push to win the backing of President Donald Trump.
Kyiv came back to the US earlier with a revised draft agreement of the deal that could open up its vast resources of key minerals to US investment, amid concerns in Kyiv over a US version that was presented to Ukraine on Wednesday.
“Our teams will continue to work on the document,” Zelensky wrote on X, adding that he had had a “good meeting” with Vance and that Kyiv was “ready to move toward as quickly as possible toward a real and guaranteed peace.”
Two members of the Ukrainian delegation told Reuters that “some details” still needed to be worked out.
It was not immediately clear what the sticking point was, but Ukraine is pressing for robust security guarantees from Europe and the United States that would protect it from Russia in the future if a peace deal is reached.
Zelensky set out the contours of the deal in a Reuters interview last week, unfurling a map showing numerous mineral deposits and saying he was offering a mutually beneficial partnership to develop them jointly and not “giving them away.”
The minerals in question would include rare earth varieties, as well as titanium, uranium and lithium among others.
Trump, who has not committed to continuing vital military assistance to Ukraine, has said he wants $500 billion in rare earth minerals from Kyiv and that Washington’s support needs to be “secured.”
Asked earlier if there would be a deal agreed on Friday, Vance had said: “Let’s see.”
Ukraine was presented with a draft accord drawn up by the United States on Wednesday when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent traveled to Kyiv. Zelensky said Ukraine would study it with a view to reaching an agreement in Munich.

​Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) and US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent (R) give a press briefing during their meeting in Kyiv on February 12, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)

Bessent told Fox Business Network on Friday that the Trump administration’s plan to end the war would intertwine Kyiv’s economy with the United States, with the US bringing its “best practices” of privatization.
He said: “Part of it starts with intertwining the ... Ukrainian economy more with the US, and making sure that US taxpayers receive the return for the money they put in.”

‘One-sided offer?
Meeting for 90 minutes with a bipartisan group of US senators behind closed doors in Munich, Zelensky voiced concern about the US proposal presented on Wednesday, three sources familiar with his presentation said.
He “felt he was being asked unreasonably to sign something he hadn’t had a chance to read,” one of them said on condition of anonymity. “I don’t think he appreciated being given a take-it-or-leave-it thing.”
Zelensky discussed his own proposal for a mineral deal with the United States, the source said, saying it was drafted to comply with the Ukrainian constitution.
Two other sources characterized the proposal delivered by Bessent as “one-sided,” but declined to elaborate.
Democratic Senator Brian Schatz, asked after the meeting if Zelensky considered the US proposal one-sided, responded, “I think that’s fair to say.”
Schatz said that the Trump proposal “needs massaging,” but declined to go into detail.


Russian forces take control of two settlements in eastern Ukraine, TASS says

Russian forces take control of two settlements in eastern Ukraine, TASS says
Updated 15 February 2025
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Russian forces take control of two settlements in eastern Ukraine, TASS says

Russian forces take control of two settlements in eastern Ukraine, TASS says
  • Ukraine’s DeepState military blog, which tracks frontline positions based on open source reports, said this week that Russian forces had made advances near Zelene Pole and Dachne

MOSCOW: Russian forces have taken control of two frontline settlements in eastern Donetsk region, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.
A ministry report said Russian forces had captured the village of Zelene Pole located between Pokrovsk, the focal point of Russian attacks in the region, and Velyuka Novosilka, a settlement that Russia’s military said it captured late last month.
Also captured, according to the Russian report, was the village of Dachne, west of the town of Kurakhove, which Russia’s military said it also captured last month. The town had been subjected to weeks of heavy fighting.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s military, in a late evening report, said both villages were among 11 settlements that had come under Russian attack in the Pokrovsk sector. But it made no mention of them coming under Russian control.
Reuters could not independently confirm battlefield reports from either side.
Ukraine’s DeepState military blog, which tracks frontline positions based on open source reports, said this week that Russian forces had made advances near Zelene Pole and Dachne.
Russian forces failed in their initial bid to advance on Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, after the February 2022 invasion and have since concentrated on capturing Donbas, made up of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
They have been making steady progress across Donetsk region for months, capturing a long string of villages.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday praised the “good success” of a regiment based near Pokrovsk, without identifying where the operation had taken place.
At least one foreign blogger has noted Ukrainian counterattacks in the area.

 


Taiwan pledges chip talks and investment to mollify Trump

Taiwan pledges chip talks and investment to mollify Trump
Updated 15 February 2025
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Taiwan pledges chip talks and investment to mollify Trump

Taiwan pledges chip talks and investment to mollify Trump
  • TSMC is investing $65 billion in new factories in the US state of Arizona, a project begun in 2020 under Trump’s first administration.
  • Taiwan is home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, TSMC, a major supplier to companies including Apple and Nvidia

TAIPEI: Taiwan President Lai Ching-te pledged on Friday to talk with the United States about President Donald Trump’s concerns over the chip industry and to increase US investment and buy more from the country, while also spending more on defense.
Trump spoke critically about Taiwan on Thursday, saying he aimed to restore US manufacturing of semiconductor chips and repeating claims about Taiwan having taken away the industry he wanted back in the United States.
Speaking to reporters after holding a meeting of the National Security Council at the presidential office, Lai said that the global semiconductor supply chain is an ecosystem in which the division of work among various countries is important.
“We of course are aware of President Trump’s concerns,” Lai said.
“Taiwan’s government will communicate and discuss with the semiconductor industry and come up with good strategies. Then we will come up with good proposals and engage in further discussions with the United States,” he added.
Democratic countries including the United States should come together to build a global alliance for AI chips and a “democratic supply chain” for advanced chips, Lai said.
“While admittedly we have the advantage in semiconductors, we also see it as Taiwan’s responsibility to contribute to the prosperity of the international community.”
Taiwan is home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, TSMC, a major supplier to companies including Apple and Nvidia, and a crucial part of the developing AI industry.
TSMC is investing $65 billion in new factories in the US state of Arizona, a project begun in 2020 under Trump’s first administration.
TSMC’s Taipei-listed shares closed down 2.8 percent on Friday, underperforming the broader market, which ended off 1.1 percent.
A senior Taiwan security official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity in order to speak more freely, said if TSMC judged it was feasible to increase its US investment, Taiwan’s government would help in talks with the United States.
TSMC declined to comment.
The official added that communications between Taiwan and US economic, security and defense officials at present was “quite good” and “strong support from the United States can be felt.”

US support
The United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Chinese-claimed Taiwan, but is the democratically governed island’s most important international backer and arms supplier.
Trump cheered Taiwan last week after a joint US-Japan statement following Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s visit to Washington called for “maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” and voiced support for “Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations.”
But Taiwan also runs a large trade surplus with the United States, which surged 83 percent last year, with the island’s exports to the US hitting a record $111.4 billion, driven by demand for high-tech products such as semiconductors.
Lai said that the United States is Taiwan’s largest foreign investment destination and that Taiwan is the United States’ most reliable trade partner.
Trump has also previously criticized Taiwan, which faces a growing military threat from China, for not spending enough on defense, a criticism he has made of many US allies.
“Taiwan must demonstrate our determination to defend ourselves,” Lai said, adding his government is working to propose a special budget this year to boost defense spending from 2.5 percent of its GDP to 3 percent.
His government is involved in a standoff with parliament, where opposition parties hold a majority, over cuts to the budget, including defense spending.
“Certainly, more and more friends and allies have expressed concern to us, worried whether Taiwan’s determination for its self-defense has weakened,” Lai said.


Vance attack on Europe overshadows Ukraine talks at security conference

Vance attack on Europe overshadows Ukraine talks at security conference
Updated 15 February 2025
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Vance attack on Europe overshadows Ukraine talks at security conference

Vance attack on Europe overshadows Ukraine talks at security conference
  • Vance criticizes Europe on free speech and migration
  • Germany’s Pistorius calls Vance’s comments ‘unacceptable’

MUNICH: US Vice President JD Vance accused European leaders on Friday of censoring free speech and failing to control immigration, drawing a sharp rebuke from Germany’s defense minister and overshadowing discussions on the war in Ukraine.
The prospect of peace talks had been expected to dominate the annual Munich Security Conference after a call between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week but Vance barely mentioned Russia or Ukraine in his speech to the gathering.
He said the threat to Europe that worried him most was not Russia or China but what he called a retreat from fundamental values of protecting free speech — as well as immigration, which he said was “out of control” in Europe.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius hit back in his speech to the conference later in the day, calling Vance’s remarks “unacceptable.”
He said Vance had called into question democracy not only in Germany but in Europe as a whole.
The clash underlined the divergent worldviews of Trump’s new administration and European leaders, making it hard for longtime allies the United States and Europe to find common ground on issues including Ukraine.

Many conference delegates watched Vance’s speech in stunned silence. There was little applause as he delivered his remarks.
After his speech, Vance met with Alice Weidel, the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, a move likely to draw criticism as unwelcome interference ahead of German federal elections next week.
Trump’s call with Putin alarmed European governments, which have tried to isolate the Russian president since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and fear they could be cut out of peace talks that would have repercussions for their own security.
Vance, who met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Munich on Friday, told the Wall Street Journal in an interview before the conference that Trump could use several tools — economic and military — for leverage with Putin.
Vance’s spokesman, William Martin, later took issue with the newspaper’s interpretation that the vice president had been threatening Russia.

Peace talks
Zelensky said at the Munich conference that he would talk to Putin only once Ukraine had agreed on a common plan with Trump and European leaders.
Vance and Zelensky declined to give details of what they discussed in Munich but the Ukrainian president reiterated that his country needs “real security guarantees.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned against any attempt to impose a peace deal on Ukraine.
“A sham peace — over the heads of Ukrainians and Europeans — would gain nothing,” she said. “A sham peace would not bring lasting security, neither for the people in Ukraine nor for us in Europe or the United States.”
Russia now holds about 20 percent of Ukraine nearly three years after launching a full-scale invasion, saying Kyiv’s pursuit of NATO membership posed an existential threat. Ukraine and the West call Russia’s action an imperialist land grab.
Vance also repeated Trump’s demand that Europe do more to safeguard its own defense so Washington can focus on other regions, particularly the Indo-Pacific.
“In the future, we think Europe is going to have to take a bigger role in its own security,” he said in a meeting with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Vance was “absolutely right” about the need for Europe “stepping up” and doing more for its own defense. “We have to grow up in that sense and spend much more,” Rutte said.
At the conference, several European leaders echoed his comments, saying Europe would step up its defense spending but also needed to discuss with Washington on a gradual phasing-out of its support.
Prior to meeting with the AfD leader, Vance suggested in his speech that the group is an eligible political partner, appearing to denounce a policy not to work with the AfD held by Germany’s major political parties.
The anti-immigration AfD is monitored by German security services on suspicion of being right-wing extremist. It is currently polling at around 20 percent ahead of the February 23 general election.
Billionaire US businessman Elon Musk, the biggest donor to Trump’s 2024 election effort and now head of Trump’s task force to slash US government spending, has also publicly backed the AfD.


OpenAI board unanimously rejects Elon Musk’s $97.4 billion proposal

OpenAI board unanimously rejects Elon Musk’s $97.4 billion proposal
Updated 15 February 2025
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OpenAI board unanimously rejects Elon Musk’s $97.4 billion proposal

OpenAI board unanimously rejects Elon Musk’s $97.4 billion proposal
  • Musk, an early OpenAI investor, began a legal offensive against the ChatGPT maker nearly a year ago, suing for breach of contract over what he said was the betrayal of its founding aims as a nonprofit

 

SAN FRANCISCO: OpenAI says its board of directors has unanimously rejected a $97.4 billion takeover bid by Elon Musk.
“OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk’s latest attempt to disrupt his competition,” said a statement Friday from Bret Taylor, chair of OpenAI’s board.
OpenAI attorney William Savitt in a letter to Musk’s attorney Friday said the proposal “is not in the best interests of OAI’s mission and is rejected.”
Musk, an early OpenAI investor, began a legal offensive against the ChatGPT maker nearly a year ago, suing for breach of contract over what he said was the betrayal of its founding aims as a nonprofit.
OpenAI has increasingly sought to capitalize on the commercial success of generative AI. But the for-profit company is a subsidiary of a nonprofit entity that’s bound to a mission — which Musk helped set — to safely build better-than-human AI for humanity’s benefit. OpenAI is now seeking to more fully convert itself to a for-profit company, but would first have to buy out the nonprofit’s assets.
Throwing a wrench in those plans, Musk and his own AI startup, xAI, and a group of investment firms announced a bid Monday to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI. Musk in a court filing Wednesday further detailed the proposal to acquire the nonprofit’s controlling stake.
Savitt’s letter Friday said that court filing added “new material conditions to the proposal. As a result of that filing, it is now apparent that your clients’ much-publicized ‘bid’ is in fact not a bid at all.” In any event, “even as first presented,” the board has unanimously rejected it, Savitt said.
Musk has alleged in the lawsuit that OpenAI is violating the terms of his foundational contributions to the charity. Musk had invested about $45 million in the startup from its founding until 2018, his lawyer has said.
He escalated the legal dispute late last year, adding new claims and defendants, including OpenAI’s business partner Microsoft, and asking for a court order that would halt OpenAI’s for-profit conversion. Musk also added xAI as a plaintiff, claiming that OpenAI was also unfairly stifling business competition. A judge is still considering Musk’s request but expressed skepticism about some of his claims in a court hearing last week.