Vance calls Harris 'trash' after deriding her for Biden's garbage gaffe

Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance slammed Vice President Kamala Harris over recent "garbage" rhetoric. He then referred to his Democratic opponent as "trash" herself.

Vance, Ohio's junior senator, was in Atlanta Monday evening, rallying supporters on the eve of Election Day. In his remarks, he criticized a statement by Harris' boss, President Joe Biden, who in a video call Tuesday labeled supporters of former President Donald Trump as "garbage."

Biden said he was condemning comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who had derided Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage," while appearing at a recent Trump rally.

Election 2024 live updates: Trump, Harris await Election Day results; new polls

"The only garbage I see floating out there," are his supporters, Biden said last week, though debate has swirled whether he meant all Trump fans or just Hinchcliffe.

Vance returned to the moment on Monday, using it to knock Harris, rather than Biden.

“And I want to ask us not to follow Kamala Harris’ terrible example, because I’m sure that everyone single one of us, all of us gathered here, know somebody planning to vote the wrong way tomorrow,” Vance told the Georgia crowd. “Here in our movement, we love every citizen of this country.”

But Vance soon followed this criticism with a bit of his own trash talk.

“In two days, we are going to take out the trash in Washington, D.C., and the trash’s name is Kamala Harris,” he said.

Trump, Vance's running mate, has taken full advantage of Biden's gaffe, arguing that the moment reveals Democrats' true thoughts about half of America. The former president even appeared in the passenger seat of a garbage truck, donning a neon trash collector's vest, at a campaign stop Wednesday.

Trump has not held his own sharp tongue. He has continually labelled Harris as "low IQ" and called his political opponents "garbage" or "human scum."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Vance criticizes garbage talk and divisiveness, calls Harris trash