Trump, Favre hammer Biden over 'garbage' comments at Green Bay rally

GREEN BAY, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Six days before Election Day, both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump sought to shore up support in key parts of Wisconsin Wednesday night.

Harris held a rally in the liberal bastion of Madison, where a growing population has offset Republican gains across rural Wisconsin. Mr. Trump campaigned in Green Bay, where he won the vote-rich counties of Brown, Outagamie and Winnebago by relatively narrow margins in 2020.

While Harris' event featured performances from Gracie Abrams, Mumford & Sons and the National, Mr. Trump called in Packers legend Brett Favre to warm up the crowd inside Resch Center.

The former president took the stage wearing an orange garbage collector's vest. Prior to his entrance, the campaign played a video of him riding in a garbage truck after landing in Green Bay.

It was all a reference to comments President Joe Biden made one night earlier. On a virtual call with a Latino voting rights group, Mr. Biden said "the only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters" while slamming the racist rhetoric displayed by some speakers during a rally Mr. Trump held in New York last weekend.

Former President Trump leaned into the controversy at the outset of his speech.

"Kamala and Joe call all of us, and them, even them, garbage," he said. "I call you the heart and soul of America. You are the heart and soul."

The White House and Mr. Biden's supporters have said what the president meant by "garbage" was Trump's supporters demonizing Latinos, a reference to Mr. Trump's Madison Square Garden rally last weekend in which a comedian speaking during the event referred to Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage."

Mr. Trump spoke for more than an hour, and most of the speech covered ground he often has during rallies. In a familiar personal attack on Harris, the former president called her "a very low IQ individual" who is "running a campaign of hate, anger and retribution."

During the rally, Mr. Trump paused to play multiple videos highlighting violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants. Last month, data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection found immigrant encounters at the southwest border were at a four-year low.

One of the loudest applause lines came when Mr. Trump outlined plans enacting harsher punishments against illegal immigrants.

"If they come back to our country (after being deported), it's an automatic 10 years in jail with no possibility of parole," Mr. Trump said. "And I am hereby calling for the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or law enforcement officer."

During the final days of the campaign, there are indications the campaigns believe they not only have to ensure their supports show up and vote; they can also convert others whose votes they haven't traditionally counted on.

State Sen. Rob Cowles (R-Green Bay), Wisconsin's longest-serving state senator, broke ranks with his party last week. He told Civic Media in an interview he would be voting for Harris.

"We have to make a change here, and Trump has to be defeated, and we have to protect the constitution," Cowles said. "The country will go on, even some liberal things Harris might do, may not do."

Before the rally Wednesday, Congressman Tom Tiffany said he believed Trump can offset any lost support of traditional Republicans by picking up votes elsewhere.

"You know, I think it's the big political realignment that's happening in America," Tiffany said. "I mean, we're seeing it on both sides, right? You've got somebody like Senator Cowles, former (state) Senator Dale Schultz, but then, you see Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy and others that are coming to the Republican side."

Tiffany said he specifically believed hunters who don't traditionally vote and men between the ages of 18 and 25 would support Mr. Trump in big enough numbers to close the 20,000-vote gap that gave President Biden Wisconsin in 2020.

Both Trump and Harris will return to Wisconsin Friday to continue their closing arguments in Milwaukee. Trump will campaign at Fiserv Forum while Harris will rally at a location that has yet to be announced.