Presidential campaign ends with trash talk

Forget about the high prices you are facing at the supermarket … those max-ed out credit cards … the high interest rates … the loved ones hooked on fentanyl … migrant criminals and gangs terrorizing local communities … the rising tide of antisemitism … the growing aggression of America’s enemies … men taking over women’s sports … a crushing national debt …  etc., etc., etc.

In these final days of the most unusual presidential campaign in American history, the media is obsessed with trash talk … literally.

President Trump said that foreign nations see America as a “crash can” to dump their worst citizens.  He claims that nations like Venezuela are sending their criminals en masse.  He is not wrong.  How else can we explain the rise of these foreign drug cartellians and gangs such as MS13 and Tren de Aragua – who are composed of illegal border crossers.  That is only a portion of the general crime surge in communities in which millions of foreign nationals have been dumped. 

Dumping undesirables on America is not a new concept.  In 1980, Cuba literally emptied prisons and put the criminals on boats to Florida.  The Mariel Boatlift resulted in 125,000 Cubans landing in the Sunshine State – many of whom were hardened criminals.  It created a crime wave in places like Miami.  Similar to the situation we see today in communities being flooded with migrants.

Trump was talking about how those other nations view America, but Democrats spun that to mean Trump was calling America, itself, a trash can – as if that was his personal view.  But that is politics.

Then we had that so-called comedian making an admittedly stupid and unfunny joke(?) that Puerto Rico is a pile of floating trash.  He was alluding to a real garbage crisis occurring on the island, but virtually no one understood that context.  From the reaction on the left, you would have thought that Trump had made the joke about the people of Puerto Rico.  Democrat and the media cronies spun that beyond recognition.

Weeell… just to prove that the trash talk can be bipartisan, President Biden pushed back on the unfortunate Puerto Rican joke by saying that Trump’s supporters are the garbage.  As is always the case with such intemperate comments, Biden claimed – through a spokesperson – that he did not mean what he said.

To make matters worse, the Biden White House altered the official transcript — making “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters’” to “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s” —  as if Biden was only referring to one person. 

Changing the official transcript is illegal – and brought this rebuke from the official government stenography supervisor.  Her leaked email said that the change by the Biden press office was “a breach of protocol and spoliation of transcript integrity between the Stenography and Press Offices.”

She added, “If there is a difference in interpretation, the Press Office may choose to withhold the transcript but cannot edit it independently,”

Ironically, both Trump and Harris are being burdened with things other people said – albeit people associated with their campaigns.

This branding of half of America as garbage is not new.  President Obama was recorded as demeaning folks who “cling to their guns and bibles.”  Hillary Clinton was more direct when she called Trump supporters “a basket of deplorables.” 

In the 2024 campaign, there has been an insidious and constant attack on Trump supporters.  They have been collectively defined and defiled as sexists, misogynists, racists, homophobes, xenophobes, insurrectionists, cultists, Nazis, fascists, terrorists … to list a few of the pejoratives.  That on top of that, there are the attacks on GOP voters as “ignorant,” “evil,” “heartless,” and “low information people.”

And that from a presidential candidate and a party that claims it says that’s want to unite Americans. That bogus claims are real trash talk.

So, there ‘tis.