By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-10-31 19:52:25 | Updated at 2024-11-06 21:29:00
6 days ago
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz ridiculed Donald Trump on the campaign trail after the former president appeared to briefly struggle while climbing into a garbage truck.
Trump staged the moment to hit at President Joe Biden for calling Trump supporters garbage – or at least seeming to do so in a mangled comment during a zoom fundraising call.
Trump's team engineered a PR coup by having the former president get inside a garbage truck to condemn his rival, then appear in a safety vest during an election when working class voters are key. But footage of Trump briefly missing the truck's door handle and dodging a potential fall provided fodder for his critics, in attacks the Harris campaign pounced on.
'This dude is nearly 80 years old. He damn near killed himself getting in a garbage truck,' said Walz, getting laughs from a crowd.
Walz, who earned his spot in part by labelling Trump and his team as 'weird,' then famously spoke about the Harris ticket bringing the 'joy' back. He made the remark about Trump, 78, at a campaign event in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a critical battleground in a state that Trump and many experts have said could decide the outcome of the presidential election.
It's just the latest turn in a saga over a 'garbage' battle that began at a Trump rally and extended into a zoom call with a flub by President Joe Biden.
Trump supporters were doing high-fives over his move to troll Joe Biden by taking questions from a garbage truck – but his critics were stoking rumors about his health after watching him climb in.
Watch your step: Kamala Harris running mate Tim Walz mocked Trump for briefly struggling while trying to get into a garbage truck for a photo-op
One X user, Matt McDermott, a pollster and consultant, posted a video clip of Trump, 78, climbing into the vehicle. It showed him twice missing the door handle and narrowly dodging a slip on the wet road surface.
'Trump seems to be really struggling physically,' he wrote in a post along with the seven-second clip. It shows Trump, followed by his campaign advisor Chris LaCivita, missing the door handle a couple times before summiting the steps to the vehicle. It got thousands of retweets.
The post got thousands of comments, including from online users who claimed Trump, a teetotaler, was drunk.
'Will this lead any networks this evening??' asked former NBA player Rex Chapman.
Former President Donald Trump staged a photo-op where he hammered Joe Biden over his 'garbage' comments. His brief struggle getting into a garbage truck sparked conspiracy theories about his health
Trump spoke about the consequences of a fall, which he said would be a career-ender
Ron Filipkowski of the MeidasTouch.com included it in a video and wrote, 'Montage of clips of Trump dragging his right leg over the last few months. He refuses to release his medical records.'
The moment came immediately after Trump said '150 million people are not garbage. I could tell you who the real garbage is, but we won't say that,' he added.
It wasn't clear where he got the 150 million figure. About 159 million people voted in the 2020 election, but 74 million voted for Trump, and 81 million voted for Joe Biden.
Other commentators used the snip to tear into Trump. 'The irony is that no city or state could hire Donald Trump as a garbage man, given he's a felon out on bail awaiting sentencing,' wrote former Mitt Romney advisor Stuart Stevens, a Trump critic.
The near-slip came in a photo op where Trump got in a garbage truck in a safety vest and trashed Joe Biden over his 'garbage' comments
Trump kept the vest on for his rally in Green Bay and spoke about how hard it was to get into the truck
The moment came at a photo-op where Trump's team found an eye-catching way to hammer President Joe Biden over his comment calling Trump supporters 'garbage.' (The White House pushed back and claimed Biden had said he was referring to offensive jokes by a comedian at a Trump rally, and put out a transcript saying Biden had referred to 'supporter's garbage' with an apostrophe.)
However he meant it, the comment gave Trump's team a way to resurrect Hillary Clinton's 'basket of deplorables' comment and claim Trump and Kamala Harris hold their supporters in contempt.
It came at a bad time for Harris, who delivered a speech to thousands from the Elipse where she stressed her outreach to Republicans and independents and said she would govern through compromise.
The Trump camp used the opportunity to go on office, after getting slammed over comments at the MAGA rally in Madison Square Garden where Tony Hinchcliffe referred to Puerto Rico as a 'floating island of garbage.'
Trump spoke about the challenge of getting into the truck at his rally – and made clear he was aware of the stakes. 'I said how the hell do you get into this truck? It's way up high, it's a big one,' he said, while still wearing the safety vest. The line drew laughs from his Green Bay crowd.
'This was a beauty. I said: you didn't have to buy it that big, right? You have to get it that big?' He said it was a gourgeous truck with a driver that 'looked like Cary Grand in his prime.'
'I said, man this is bad, because now I have all the cameras, they're watch ...,' before pointing out the 'fake news' in the venue.
'One little mistake with these guys and your political career is over. I don't get up there, this is going to be very embarrassing.'
