2024 election updates: Trump slams Biden over 'garbage' comments, calls opponents 'lowlifes'

President Joe Biden has drawn fire from Republicans due to comments he made at a Voto Latino campaign call Tuesday night -- when his wording seemed to be referring to the supporters of former President Donald Trump as "garbage."

"Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a 'floating island of garbage,'" Biden said, according to a video clip on CNN.

He went on to call Puerto Ricans "good, decent, honorable people" before adding, "The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters."

The comment was followed by: "His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it's un-American. It's totally contrary to everything we've done, everything we've been."

President Joe Biden has drawn fire from Republicans due to comments he made at a Voto Latino campaign call Tuesday night

Republicans quickly pounced on the comment, comparing it to Hillary Clinton's "basket of deplorables" comment in 2016.

Sen. Marco Rubio broke the news to Trump onstage as he campaigned in Allentown, Philadelphia.

Trump responded, "Remember, Hilary said 'deplorable.'"

"That didn't work out," he continued. "'Garbage' I think is worse, right?"

Trump Campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responded by saying, "Joe Biden and Kamala Harris hate America and don't deserve four more years. Kamala must answer for this disgraceful attack on tens of millions of Americans."

The new controversy comes one week out from the election, and on the night that Vice President Kamala Harris delivered her closing campaign message on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C.

"The President referred to the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as 'garbage,'" a White House spokesperson said in a statement.

A transcript of the remarks given to ABC News by the White House has an apostrophe at the end of "supporter's," but it is unclear from the video of Biden's remarks whether the president meant that word in the possessive.

A spokesman for Harris' campaign referred ABC News to the White House's official statement.

Biden responded shortly afterward with a post on X, saying that it was specifically the "hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump's supporter" that he was calling "garbage."

-ABC News' Justin R. Gomez

Trump claimed during his rally in Allentown that the Harris campaign had bused people to Washington "because they couldn't get anybody to show up there tonight."

The Harris campaign touted that more than 75,000 people had gathered on the National Mall for Harris' remarks tonight at the same venue where Trump spoke ahead of the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Vice President Kamala Harris stressed former President Donald Trump's role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, while standing on the same stage he did that preceded the riot.

"Americans died as a result of that attack. 140 law enforcement officers were injured because of that attack," Harris said.

Harris, speaking in front of the White House, both distanced herself from President Joe Biden and embraced her one-time running mate.

"My presidency will be different because the challenges we face will be different," Harris said.

Biden was in the White House behind Harris while she delivered her speech. Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee when Biden opted not to run for reelection in July.