The Free Press
It’s Thursday, October 31. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Coming up: Peter Savodnik reports from two forgotten towns. River Page on how politically homeless gay conservatives are voting. Josh Code on a New York ballot measure that’s deceiving voters. Halloween! And much more.
But first, the media cleans up Joe Biden’s “garbage” comment.
On Tuesday night, Joe Biden called half the country “garbage.” Think I’m exaggerating? Watch for yourself (video via @SteveGuest/X):
While Kamala Harris was delivering her campaign’s closing pitch at Washington D.C.’s Ellipse, promising voters to “always put country above party and above self,” Biden was cooking up an October surprise. On a call with Voto Latino, a self-described group of “Latinx voters,” the president was trying to hit back against right-wing comedian Tony Hinchliffe, who joked at a Trump rally on Sunday that Puerto Rico is a “floating island of garbage.” Biden’s retort upstaged Harris in the worst possible way: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” he said.
The White House press team did their best to take out the trash, issuing a transcript of his comments that added an apostrophe to the word supporters. The singular possessive supporter’s, you see, meant that Biden was referring only to Hinchcliffe’s garbage—not Trump’s!
Right. Sure.
It’s one thing for the White House to spin. We’re in the home stretch of a close election. It’s another for the press to rush into damage control mode for Biden and Harris. Just behold these gems:
“As somebody who had a stutter growing up, it’s very obvious to me that there was an apostrophe at the end of ‘supporters,’ ” said CNN panelist Franklin Leonard.
“Did Biden Call Trump Supporters ‘Garbage’? It Comes Down to an Apostrophe,” The Washington Post published under “analysis.”
“‘Supporters’ or ‘Supporter’s’? Biden Comments About Trump ‘Garbage’ Rally Anger the GOP,” wrote CBS News.
“Did Biden Mean to Call Trump Supporters ‘Garbage,’ or Just Stumble Defending Puerto Rico?” writes the Los Angeles Times.
“Biden ‘Garbage’ Controversy Is Pure Republican Hypocrisy,” exclaimed New York magazine, who accused “conservative snowflakes” of having “a fainting spell over his stumble.”
Politico rushed to update their reports to include the White House apostrophe. The correction notice reads: “This report was updated to correct President Joe Biden’s quote.”
These are the same outlets that turned an obscure comedian’s nasty joke about Puerto Rico being “garbage” into a days-long national news cycle. But when the president of the United States said the same of his opposition’s supporters? Well, nothing could be less important.
On Tuesday evening, Biden posted on X that “all I meant to say” was that the comedian’s rhetoric was “hateful.” Axios’s Alex Thompson asked how the White House knew Biden meant supporter’s and not supporters when they issued the transcript. Did Biden tell them that? (The spokesperson would agree to answer only off the record, an offer Thompson declined. After the story was published, the spokesperson told Thompson that staff had checked with Biden but refused to give details.)
As Bari Weiss noted in a piece we published Wednesday afternoon, the legacy press is deeply invested in a Harris victory. White House reporters insisted that Biden was sharp as a tack when they knew he wasn’t. Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally was compared by MSNBC and others to a 1939 pro-Nazi rally. And now, Biden didn’t really say what we all heard him say.
Harris at least seems to realize that Biden’s comment, whether supporters or supporter’s, was deeply unhelpful, and had more than a whiff of deplorables about it. On Wednesday, she threw the president under the bus, telling reporters that Biden had “clarified” what he meant, but in any case “I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.” Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro also distanced himself from Biden, telling CNN he “would never insult” any American who “chose to support a candidate that I didn’t support.”
And Trump? Well, he had a field day, posing at the wheel of a garbage truck emblazoned with his name. “This is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden,” he said, before speaking at a rally while wearing an orange safety vest.
While media elites are busy playing stupid word games to cover for the president, some reporters are still trying to make sense of the country on the eve of Election Day. One of them is our own Peter Savodnik, who traveled to two American towns emblematic of a broken America.
East Palestine, Ohio, still hasn’t recovered from the Norfolk Southern train derailment in early 2023, when huge vats of toxic chemicals spilled into the town’s creek and forced people to abandon their homes. The poisoning there “mirrors that of another Rust Belt backwater: Flint, Michigan, 294 miles to the north and west,” where a decade ago lead contaminated the town’s water supply, killing twelve people.
“One was a cause célèbre,” used by the right as a symbol of working-class despair; “the other, a symbol of systemic racism, championed by the left.”
But both were “ultimately incapable of pushing back against the tectonic forces that had conspired against the American heartland.”
Read Peter Savodnik on “The Abandoned Americans.”
The Smearing of Gay Conservatives
Speaking of alienated Americans, River Page reports on gay conservatives voting for Trump, who are seen as “traitors” on the left and “groomers” on the right.
Clarkson Lawson, a 26-year-old gay content creator, fears that if he were born today in California and enjoyed dressing as a girl, his mother would have put him “on puberty blockers.” But he’s also wary of social conservatives, who tell him he’ll “burn in hell for eternity.”
Still, he’ll be voting for Donald Trump—as will many other gay voters our writer River Page spoke to. Why? As Log Cabin Republican Casey Flores says, Trump is “a Manhattan businessman. He doesn’t give a shit if you’re gay or straight.”
Read River Page on why gay conservatives say they have nothing to fear from Donald Trump.
New York’s Prop 1 Is a Trojan Horse
And for New York voters, our Josh Code has some advice: Beware of Prop 1.
The ACLU of New York says the proposition will codify abortion rights. “But the word abortion doesn’t appear anywhere on the ballot,” writes Josh. At first glance, it “seems like boilerplate equal rights language.” But really, it’s “a Trojan horse that will actually allow discrimination.” Some people who could fall afoul of the law are biological women, Asian and white students, and even parents, Josh reports.
Trick or Treat: It’s Our Halloween Special!
The presidential election may be enough of a horror show for you this Halloween, but if you’re looking to escape the news, then look no further than the latest episode of Honestly. In this Free Press fright night special, Suzy Weiss, Kat Rosenfield, and River Page review four new horror films—and reveal what freaks them out. Click the play button below to hear what they thought of MaXXXine, Apartment 7A, Longlegs, and The Substance, or catch their discussion wherever you get your podcasts. Spoiler alert!
The U.S. economy grew by an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the third quarter of 2024, according to data released by the Commerce Department yesterday. The figure is slightly below expectations, but it’s nonetheless a healthy number. And with the economy growing and inflation cooling, it’s no surprise consumer confidence is rising. A new survey shows a jump in the consumer confidence index from 99.2 in September to 108.7 in October, the biggest monthly gain since March 2021.
Donald Trump has reportedly told Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he wants Israel to finish its war in Gaza before he returns to the White House. According to The Times of Israel, the former president delivered this message to Netanyahu at a Mar-a-Lago meeting in July. This strategy is nothing if not direct. The White House is quarterbacking a multinational negotiation effort to secure peace that has gone nowhere. Trump, meanwhile, is pursuing the “Hey buddy, maybe wrap this up?” approach.
You’re Free Pressers, which means you’re relentlessly committed to the truth. And you’d never lie about who you’re voting for, right? Right? According to a new Axios/Harris poll, one in four U.S. voters have been less than honest with people close to them about their voting plans. Gen Z are the biggest fibbers: Half say they have lied about their vote. And men are apparently twice as likely as women to say they have lied about their vote. But how to account for the people lying about whether or not they lied?
While the candidates spent most of Wednesday litigating who hated the other’s supporters more, the polls show more of the same: a very close race, with Trump ever so slightly ahead where it matters. In other campaign news: Buzz Aldrin endorsed Donald Trump, Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed Kamala Harris, Nikki Haley said Trump hasn’t spoken to her since June, and the Supreme Court gave the green light to Virginia to purge 1,600 noncitizens from voter rolls after the move was blocked by a lower court.
The Dominican Republic launched a renewed effort to deport 10,000 Haitians a week, with military members walking migrants across the border back into the anarchic island nation whose capital has been taken over by violent gangs. Amid concerns that the mass deportations would disrupt the labor force and trigger a humanitarian crisis, DR president Luis Abinader revamped construction of a 250-mile wall along their border with Haiti, saying that “The security of the Dominican Republic comes first and foremost.” Sound familiar?
Investigators found the phrase Free Gaza scrawled on the explosives used to set fire to two ballot boxes in Washington and Oregon. Hundreds of ballots were destroyed in the arson attacks, most of which were in Vancouver, Washington where there is now 24/7 monitoring of the drop boxes. A third, undetonated explosive was found in Vancouver with the words Free Gaza and Free Palestine. Authorities in the two states—both of which rely fully on mail-in or drop-box voting—“have not yet determined the motive” of the attack. With those notes left behind, it’s definitely a tough case to crack.
Hasan Piker is a leading gamer and Twitch streamer who has hosted Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) on his channel. He was also among the accredited “influencers” at this year’s Democratic National Convention. Lately Piker has started peddling increasingly vile anti-Israel rhetoric. He’s pro-Houthi and says he “doesn’t have an issue” with Hezbollah. His latest outburst: “It doesn’t matter if rapes fucking happened on October 7, like that doesn’t change the dynamic for me even this much,” pinching his fingers together. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) shot back on Instagram: “A social media influencer who openly defends the rape and mass murder of Jews is not only accepted but celebrated in our society. What does that reveal about the depth of antisemitism in the American soul?”
The baseball season ended with the Los Angeles Dodgers beating the New York Yankees 7-6 to take the World Series four games to one. But the Yankees and their fans are going to spend a long time thinking about how the team snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in Game 5 Wednesday night. With ace pitcher Gerrit Cole breezing through four innings, the Yankees made a series of mind-boggling errors in the fifth inning–starting with superstar Aaron Judge dropping a routine fly ball–that turned a 5-0 lead into a 5-5 tie. Although the Yankees grabbed the lead again in the sixth inning, they couldn’t hold onto it. “I’m heartbroken,” said Yankee manager Aaron Boone in the post-game press conference. “This is going to sting forever.”
A waltz by Frédéric Chopin has been discovered by a curator at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York nearly 200 years after it was written. The piece of music was sitting in the museum’s archives, where it had been since it was donated as part of a personal collection in 2019. Eight Chopin waltzes were published during his lifetime, but experts believe the Polish composer wrote as many as 28. Watch star pianist Lang Lang perform the unearthed composition.
Don’t Miss The Free Press Live
The Free Press Live is back today with another show from our New York newsroom. Tune in at 9:30 a.m. ET to watch hosts Michael Moynihan and Batya Ungar-Sargon make sense of the latest news with help from Bari Weiss, Abigail Shrier, Catherine Herridge, Coleman Hughes, and Peter Savodnik.
Oh, and did we mention we’re doing an election night live show? Check out the full lineup below. And click “notify me” right here to make sure you don’t miss it.
Madeleine Kearns is an associate editor for The Free Press. Follow her on X @madeleinekearns.
To support The Free Press, become a paid subscriber today:
And if you’re enjoying The Front Page, consider forwarding it to someone else you think might like it.
I live in Vancouver, WA where a ballot box was hit with an incendiary device. My husband and I signed up to do a few 8 hour shifts. We are doing our 2nd stakeout tonight from 11pm -7am and because the clocks go back an hour tonight we get to sit in our car an extra hour. Lucky us.
As a Canadian watching from the outside… what is sad is that the whole world seems to ignore the fact that Tony was trying to bring attention to the fact that there is a massive problem with garbage in our oceans and that Puerto Ricans wake up daily to plastic bottles and bags on their beautiful beaches… once again the media uses it as a distraction from the real issues…