WASHINGTON (AP) – Kamala Harris said Wednesday that she disagrees with “any criticism of people based on who they vote for,” and responded President Joe Biden's reference to Donald Trump's supporters and “garbage.”

“I will represent all Americans, even those who don’t vote for me,” the vice president said.

Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, made the remark to reporters as she prepared to campaign in three states. Her words were an attempt to defuse controversy over Biden's rhetoric with less than a week until Election Day.

It was around this time that the riot began on Tuesday evening Harris delivered a unifying message in a speech near the White House. Inside the building, Biden criticized Trump's recent rally at Madison Square Garden, where a comedian described Puerto Rico as an “island of floating trash.”

“The only trash I see out there is his supporters. “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and un-American,” Biden said in a campaign appeal from the Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino. “It’s completely contradictory to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”

Biden and the White House rushed to explain that the president was speaking about the rhetoric on stage and not about Trump's supporters themselves. But Republicans seized on Biden's comments, claiming they were an echo of the time when Hillary Clinton, as Democratic nominee against Trump in 2016, said half of Trump's supporters were part of a “basket of deplorables.”

By attacking Biden, and by extension Harris, Republicans are glossing over Trump's own history of insulting and demonizing rhetoric, such as calling the United States a “dustbin for the world” or referring to political opponents as “the enemy within.” Trump also described Harris as a “stupid person” and “lazy as hell” and questioned whether she was on drugs.

Trump also rejected calls to apologize for the comment about Puerto Rico at his rally. He acknowledged that “someone said some bad things,” but added that he “can’t imagine that’s a big deal.”

Political attack lines have a history of occasionally causing backlash against people who use them. For example, Ohio Senator JD Vance, now Trump's running mate, once described Democrats as “beholden to a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable about their own lives and the choices they've made.”

Vance's three-year-old comments resurfaced when he was named the vice presidential running mate, energizing Harris supporters who used the label as a badge of pride on T-shirts and bumper stickers, similar to how Trump supporters once gleefully branded themselves “deplorables.”

On Wednesday morning, Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, downplayed Biden's comments in television interviews.

He told “CBS Mornings” that Biden “made it very clear that he was talking about the rhetoric we heard,” not the supporters themselves.

Walz made a similar comment on ABC's “Good Morning America,” where he emphasized Democrats' inclusive message.

“Let me be clear: The vice president and I have made it absolutely clear that we want everyone to be a part of this,” he said. “Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric must end.”