MESQUITE, Nev. — Voters in this largely GOP enclave in the northeast part of largely Democratic Clark County don’t like President Biden dumping on them and their Trump-voting swing-state neighbors as “garbage.”
In a get-out-the-vote video call Tuesday, the lame-duck president brought up “insult comic” Tony Hinchcliffe calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” at Donald Trump’s Sunday Madison Square Garden rally.
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and it’s un-American,” Biden said.
The White House scrambled Wednesday to recast Biden’s trash talk as limited to Hinchcliffe, but the damage was done for Trump supporters.
“I’m in shock,” said GOP volunteer Sandy Sorenson, a 26-year resident of this desert city. “I’ve never considered myself garbage and anybody I know, that’s reprehensible. I just can’t believe somebody would call my friends and myself garbage.”
Not only would she not call Democratic voters “garbage,” Sorenson said, “I wouldn’t even call him garbage,” referring to Biden.
Karen Campbell, another party volunteer, said, “I think it’s disgusting. It’s along the lines of Hillary Clinton’s ‘deplorables.’ So now we’re deplorable garbage, I guess to them. I think that’s totally inappropriate.”
Campbell scoffed at Biden’s retraction, saying, “Well, he misspeaks a lot. . . . I don’t really care to be called trash or garbage or even a deplorable,”
One voter who walked in was particularly unimpressed with Biden’s remark.
“How would he know? Unless he’s there in the garbage dump himself, how would that bozo possibly know that?” asked Lee McCord.
“He’s a loser,” she added. “He was stuck on us. He cheated his way in, we all know that, because there’s nobody in their right mind that would vote for somebody without a brain in their head, and it’s been a failure his whole 40-odd years in office.”
McCord said she would not call Harris-Walz voters “garbage” but would use the word “brainless” instead.
Mesquite’s population is just under 23,000, and the retirement-friendly community is expected to grow in the coming years. Despite a solid Republican base, there are a fair number of Harris-Walz signs on display in front yards and along main drag Pioneer Boulevard.