Critics are lambasting Joe Biden for a moment during a Pennsylvania campaign-trail stop when he promised to be a president for everybody – including a group of what he called “chump” Trump supporters.
“I’ll work as hard for those who don’t support me as for those who do,” Biden told his supporters on Saturday, “including those chumps with the microphone out there.”
WATCH: Joe Biden insults Pennsylvanians who don't support him, calls them "chumps" pic.twitter.com/QvHgk7nppH
— Trump War Room - Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) October 24, 2020
While it wasn’t immediately clear who the “chumps” in question were, the former vice president could have been referring to the pro-Trump protesters attempting to disrupt the event – an issue he’s faced at stops before.
Immediately after his “chumps” comment, Biden coughed into his hand, something he’s been told is likely not a good idea, especially during a pandemic.
Conservative critics have highlighted Biden’s “chumps” comment – with some even comparing it to Hillary Clinton’s infamous moment in 2016 when she referred to Trump supporters as “deplorables” – as well as his questionable coughing technique.
“Chumps is the new deplorables,” writer Mike LaChance tweeted.
“So Biden’s going to heal our national political division by... calling Trump supporters ‘chumps’?” Daily Wire editor Ashe Short added.
“Let’s celebrate Joe Biden’s pathetic ‘Basket of Deplorables’ moment and embrace being #ChumpsForTrump, which is what he calls the 100,000,000 Americans who will be sending his bony old a** #BackToTheBasement,” conservative actor James Woods wrote when sharing the video.
Joe Biden insults Pennsylvanians who don't support him, calls them "chumps.” He has the same disdain for hard working Americans as Hillary had with her deplorables comment. pic.twitter.com/J0u36tR4a2
An increasingly negative & unmasked @JoeBiden yells to a mostly empty lot, coughs into his bare hand, calls millions of Pennsylvanians who don't support him "chumps". A sequel to Hillary's snobby "deplorable" & "irredeemable" riff. They still think so little of so many Americans https://t.co/i88WquAyoT
Biden was also accused by the president’s campaign of calling Trump supporters “racist, xenophobic, and Islamaphobic” in May, after an online fundraiser. The Democrat said he had no interest in appealing to Trump’s base because “they really support the notion that, you know, all Mexicans are rapists and all Muslims are bad and ... dividing this nation based on ethnicity [and] race. This is one of the few presidents who succeeded by deliberately trying to divide the country, not unite the country.”
