In Wisconsin, Trump is courting “garbage” outrage while Harris is courting students

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump donned an orange vest and climbed into a garbage truck in Green Bay on Wednesday to highlight a gaffe committed by President Joe Biden just the day before.

Nearly 160 miles away in Madison, Vice President Kamala Harris took the stage before thousands of screaming students and vowed to chart a new path forward.

The split screen played out in that crucial turning point six days before the election, as both campaigns sprinted across battlegrounds to rally their voters in a race expected to be won on the margins.

Both sides say it couldn't be closer here – the state where Biden won by just over 20,600 votes in 2020. Wisconsin is among the few states that are almost certain to decide the election – a key part of the “blue wall.” crucial for Harris' path to the White House. Trump is seeking a repeat of 2016, when he denied Democrat Hillary Clinton a victory by sweeping every blue wall state, including Wisconsin.

Both Harris and Trump will return here on Friday and hold dueling rallies in Milwaukee, the state's largest city.

While Harris' team targeted young voters at the University of Wisconsin on Wednesday, Trump's campaign had a day full of trash.

There was an attempt to capitalize on a comment from Biden on Tuesday that appeared to call Trump supporters “trash.” Facing the immediate backlash, both Biden and the White House sought to clarify his comments, saying they specifically referenced the “hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico” that comedian Tony Hinchcliffe said at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden over the weekend had used in New York City.

The White House also released a transcript that attempts to show what Biden was trying to say by adding an apostrophe to “supporters”: “The only garbage I see floating out there is that of his supporters – his – his demonization of.” Latinos is incomprehensible, and it is outrageously “American.”

However, the political damage was done.

Trump didn't just focus on Biden's comments at a rally in North Carolina on Wednesday afternoon; He also sat in a garbage truck at the Green Bay airport when he arrived for a rally later that evening.

“Joe Biden should be ashamed of himself if he even knows what he’s doing,” Trump said from the garbage truck.

The message also became a major theme at the rally in Green Bay, where Trump took the stage in a fluorescent vest similar to the type worn by a garbage truck driver. Several speakers also brought up the topic, including legendary former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre.

“I can assure you that we are not all trash,” said Favre, who is under investigation in his home state of Mississippi over allegations of welfare fraud. “How dare you say that.”

In his remarks, Trump also emphasized his desire to close the southern border and at times played news clips about undocumented immigrants committing crimes while staying in the U.S. illegally. He praised Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who has become one of his biggest financial supporters, and said he would protect women whether they wanted protection from him or not.

“I want to protect the women of our country. … I'm president, I want to protect the women of our country,” Trump said. “I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not.”

Harris' camp focused on urging voters to go to the polls on Wednesday. Numerous speakers — from Gov. Tony Evers to Sen. Tammy Baldwin to singer Gracie Abrams — urged the arena to get out to vote.

Abrams was among the musical performers, with Mumford & Sons as the closing band, who wowed a boisterous crowd of more than 13,000 before Harris arrived, according to the campaign.

With a banner in the background reading “Badger for Harris-Walz,” Harris described Trump as obsessed with grievances and seeking unchecked power. She took a moment to address the students in the arena.

“I see the promise of America and all the young leaders who are voting for the first time. And I love your generation. “I just love you,” she said, smiling. “You now know fewer rights than your mothers and grandmothers (and) are committed to freedom, and what I know about you is that these issues are not theoretical. For you it's not political. This is your lived experience, and I see you, and I see your strength. I see your strength and I’m so proud of you.”

A roaring crowd waved red-and-white signs that read “Vote,” and in one part of the audience, a group of people displayed a banner that read “Freedom,” a theme Harris has embraced from the start of her campaign. There were also two brief interruptions by protesters demanding an end to the Israeli-Gaza war.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California attended the rally after stumbling along the way with Baldwin. Schiff said in a brief interview with NBC News that Harris laid out the path forward in her speech at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday night. He sidestepped a question about Biden's comments Tuesday and Trump's response to the garbage truck gag, saying he wasn't focused on the matter.

A Marquette University Law School poll released Wednesday showed Harris leading Trump 50% to 49%, well within the poll's margin of error. That's one tick less for Harris, who got 52% to Trump's 48% in the same poll in September.

“It's so close that even the slightest change in the last six days can decide the race, whether we're talking about the seven swing states, most of which are on a knife edge, or whether we're talking about Wisconsin,” Charles said Franklin, the head of the survey. “This is a race that can really go either way and we shouldn’t be particularly surprised.”

Trump's dress-up game marked the second time in recent weeks that he staged an event for the cameras, after wearing a McDonald's uniform and serving his fans at the drive-thru.

It remains to be seen whether these measures will be well received.

But for Harris supporters, Trump's outrage over Biden's comments rang hollow.

Linda Gator, who lives in the Sheboygan area, scoffed when asked.

“Give me a break,” she said. “There's a man who spews hate nonstop and Biden makes a mistake and we all know the man has a stuttering problem. We all know that sometimes we all mispronounce something, but one time he mispronounces something, to be honest, your colleagues blow it up?”

Cyrus Obut, a father of three who attended the rally with two of his daughters, said he believed Trump's trash talk would not gain traction. He referred to the event at Madison Square Garden and said comments there were “racist” and full of “bigotry.”

“At least for Biden, he apologized, he said he misspelled. But on the other hand, did he? No,” Obut said.

Matt Dixon reported from Green Bay and Natasha Korecki and Shaquille Brewster reported from Madison.