Trump uses Biden comments as rallying cry, Harris continues to distance from 'garbage' controversy

President Trump participates in a wreath laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on May 25, 2020. (Chris Kleponis/Polaris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

A recent Pew Research Poll gives former President Trump the lead with veterans nationwide over Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of Tuesday's presidential election.

The poll, conducted with 876 veteran registered voters, gave Trump or "Leans Trump" 61% of the key demographic's support. Just 37% of the veterans polled responded that they support Harris.

Veterans make up around 6% of the country, according to the Census Bureau, or about 16 million people per 2022 numbers. The number of veterans nationwide is steadily dwindling, with around 18% of the American population being veterans in 1980.

Veterans 4 America First Institute, a nonprofit, reacted to the recent poll showing overwhelming support for Trump ahead of the 2024 presidential election in an interview with Fox News Digital.

"The reason veterans are sticking with Trump, despite all the fake news, all the lies about Trump, is because veterans care about two things: results, and their pension," Darin Selnick, an Air Force veteran and founder of Veterans 4 America First Institute, told Fox News Digital.

"And so with the VA, you know, veterans all over the country saying, ‘We want Trump back’ because the VA has gone downhill. We're not getting our choice of staff or not being accountable," said Selnick.

The Mission Act and the Accountability Acts passed under former President Trump allowed for veterans to seek private providers outside the VA as well as hold poorly performing VA staff accountable.

This is an excerpt from an article by Jasmine Baehr.

Election Day is less than a week away and voters are already heading to the polls and mailing in their ballots, and betting markets have weighed in on whether Republicans or Democrats are favored to win control of Congress.

Control of both the House of Representatives and Senate have been closely contested in recent years, with the last two Congresses having historically thin majorities in both the House and Senate. The GOP controlled a narrow 222-213 majority in the House at the outset of the current 118th Congress, after Democrats began the prior Congress with a majority of the same margin.

In the Senate, Democrats currently have a 51-49 majority when including independent senators who caucus with the Democratic Party. During the previous Congress, the Senate had a 50-50 split with Democrats controlling the majority by virtue of Vice President Kamala Harris' tiebreaking vote.

Traders on Polymarket see the trend of relatively narrow majorities continuing in the next Congress after this election. While the platform currently sees an 83% chance of a GOP majority in the Senate, bettors are also anticipating that it will be by a relatively small margin.

Since early September, Polymarket traders have seen a 52-seat GOP majority as the likeliest outcome, which peaked at a 52% chance in early October but has since ebbed to a 25% chance. A slightly smaller 51-seat GOP majority is the next most likely outcome according to Polymarket bettors, with a 16% chance.

Bettors see an 11% chance that Republicans will end up with 49 or fewer Senate seats — which would give Democrats a narrow majority. They also see a 9% chance of a 50-50 bipartisan split, which would give the majority to the party that wins the White House and has a vice president who can cast tiebreaking votes in the Senate.

Polymarket's traders see the battle for control of the House of Representatives as a virtual toss-up, with House Democrats having a roughly 50% chance of winning a majority over the past week. 

However, a separate market on the platform suggests that House Republicans are more likely to attain a larger majority than what has occurred in recent years, as it sees a 29% chance there will be 230 or more GOP seats in the House in the next Congress. It also shows a 15% chance the GOP ends up with fewer than 200 seats — which would leave Democrats with a majority of more than 235 seats.

BetUS' odds see control of the House of Representatives as a toss-up with Democrats and Republicans having equal odds. It also has Republicans as the heavy favorites to win control of the Senate. 

This is an excerpt from an article by Eric Revell.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre faced immediate backlash Wednesday after she denied that President Biden had referred to Trump supporters as "garbage."

"Just to clarify, he was not calling Trump supporters garbage," Jean-Pierre told reporters at the daily White House press briefing, reiterating the statement Biden put out to clean up his remarks.

"He does not view Trump supporters or anybody who supports Trump as garbage," she said, adding that Biden has said numerous times that he is a "president for all," including those who did not vote for him in red states and blue states. 

But commentators argued this may say more about Jean-Pierre's estimation of the American public than Biden's actual statement.

"Breaking wind from BSNBC!" former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee wrote. "5 Alarm fire at the WH when KJP's pants catch fire in spontaneous combustion after she claims Joe didn't really call Trump supporters ‘garbage.’ She does know that we can see the video for ourselves? That we aren't as clueless as her boss is?"

Tarrant County GOP chairman Bo French commented, "It amazes me more people aren't appalled by the outright lies these people tell. We watched the video. He clearly called us garbage. I have a feeling the swing voters are done with this kind of BS."

"JUST IN: Karine Jean-Pierre, while dressed as a piece of Laffy Taffy, says Biden ‘was not calling Trump supporters garbage.’ … even though it’s LITERALLY ON VIDEO Again, these people think you’re stupid," videojournalist Nick Sortor wrote. "Vote accordingly."

This is an excerpt from an article by Alexander Hall.

Jennifer Aniston announced Wednesday that she voted for Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be the next president and vice president of the United States of America.

"Today not only did I vote for access to health care, for reproductive freedom, for equal rights, for safe schools, and for a fair economy, but also for SANITY and HUMAN DECENCY," Aniston wrote in a social media post.

She encouraged others to vote as well and pleaded for Americans to "end this era of fear, chaos and the attacks on our democracy." 

"I very proudly voted for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz," she wrote. 

"We are so lucky we get to VOTE and this election is in our hands! We only have one week until Election Day so talk to your friends, your family, your neighbors and let's find our way back to each other with respect, common cause, and Love." 

Former President Trump said the Biden-Harris administration has treated the American people and "our whole country like garbage," claiming that it's now clear what President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris "really think of our supporters."

Trump held a rally Wednesday afternoon in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, just a day after Harris made her final pitch to voters in a speech from Washington, D.C. 

The vice president’s address was quickly overshadowed by Biden’s remarks during a Zoom call with Voto Latino on Tuesday.

During the call with the group, which is one of the largest Latino voter and civic outreach organizations in the U.S., Biden was asked about a comment made Sunday during a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden in which comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage."

Biden replied: "The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters." 

The White House has since denied that Biden called Trump supporters "garbage" and claimed the comment was taken out of context.

During the rally Wednesday, Trump said Harris has been "comparing her political opponents to the most evil mass murderers in history, and now, speaking on a call for her campaign last night, Joe Biden finally said what he and Kamala really think of our supporters." 

"He called them garbage — and they mean it, even though, without question, my supporters are far higher quality than Crooked Joe and Lyin’ Kamala," Trump told supporters. 

But Trump said he had a response for the president and vice president. 

"My response to Joe and Kamala is very simple: You can’t lead America if you don’t love Americans," Trump declared. "And you can’t be president if you hate the American people, and there’s a lot of hatred there." 

This is an excerpt from an article by Brooke Singman.