Washington DC - President Joe Biden came under fire Tuesday for appearing to refer to Donald Trump's supporters as "garbage" during an election campaign call.

Speaking in a video call with the nonprofit VotoLatino, Biden addressed the controversy that erupted after one of Trump's warm-up speakers at a New York rally on Sunday referred to Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage."

"The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters," said Biden. "His, his, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and it's un-American."

In a statement, the White House said Biden was referring to Trump's rhetoric, not to his supporters.

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"The President referred to the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as 'garbage'," said White House spokesperson Andrew Bates.

The comments were seized upon by Trump's campaign, with the Republican presidential hopeful calling them "terrible."

"These people. Terrible, terrible – terrible to say a thing like that," Trump said at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

He compared the comments to when Hillary Clinton, running against Trump for the presidency in 2016, said half of the Republican's supporters were "deplorables."

"Garbage, I think, is worse, right?" Trump quipped in Pennsylvania.

Trump's running mate J.D. Vance called Biden's words "disgusting."

"Kamala Harris and her boss Joe Biden are attacking half of the country," he said.

At Trump's Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage" and made other racist remarks about Black Americans and Latinos' sex lives.

On Tuesday, Trump tried to distance himself from the comments and defended the rally.

"I don't know if it's a big deal or not, but I don't want anybody making nasty jokes or stupid jokes," he told Fox News. "Probably, he shouldn't have been there."