Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday tried to distance herself from the fallout over President Biden disparaging Trump supporters as “garbage.”

Speaking with reporters before flying to North Carolina for a campaign rally, Ms. Harris said Mr. Biden “clarified his comments.” 

“I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for,” she said. 

Ms. Harris said the president called her Tuesday night following her massive campaign rally on the Ellipse in Washington and added that the “garbage” comment didn’t come up in their conversation.

“You heard my speech last night and throughout my career. I believe that the work I do is about representing all the people, whether they support me or not, and as president of the United States I will be a president for all Americans, whether you vote for me or not,” she said.

The “garbage” issue has diverted attention from what was supposed to be a big night for Ms. Harris, who delivered her “closing argument” speech with a week to go in the election. 

Mr. Biden touched off a political firestorm and headache for Ms. Harris when he spoke out against a joke made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at former President Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday.

At the event, Mr. Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage.”

On Tuesday’s video call for Latino voter outreach, Mr. Biden defended the Puerto Rican community and appeared to malign Trump supporters.

“They’re good, decent, honorable people,” the president said, referring to Puerto Ricans. “The only garbage I see floating out there is [Trump’s] supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done.”

Democrats and the White House quickly turned to damage control, with spokesman Andrew Bates saying in a statement that Mr. Biden “referred to the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally as garbage.”

The White House also released a transcript in an effort to show that Mr. Biden was not condemning Trump supporters as “garbage,” but rather he misspoke while criticizing Mr. Hinchcliffe’s remarks.

The transcript also added an apostrophe to supporter’s in Mr. Biden’s remarks. 

“And just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of garbage,’” read the White House transcript. “Well, let me tell you something. I don’t — I — I don’t know the Puerto Rican that — that I know — or a Puerto Rico, where I’m fr- — in my home state of Delaware, they’re good, decent, honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”

In a follow-up on X, Mr. Biden again tried to clarify his remark.

“Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporters at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage — which is the only word I can think of to describe it,” he wrote.

Mr. Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, blasted Mr. Biden, saying the president and Ms. Harris “ought to be ashamed of themselves.”

“A mother mourning her son who died of a fentanyl overdose is not garbage,” Mr. Vance wrote on X.

Some, including the Trump campaign, compared Mr. Biden’s remark to other disparaging comments made by politicians amid presidential campaigns, though Mr. Biden isn’t running for reelection.

In 2016, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton condemned many Trump supporters as “the basket of deplorables.”

“The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up,” she said, referring to Mr. Trump.

In 2012, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney blasted supporters of President Barack Obama. 

“There are 47% who are within, who are dependent upon the government, who believe they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them … and the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what,” Mr. Romney said. 

The Harris campaign has largely sidelined the president during the final weeks heading toward Nov. 5.

Mr. Biden said in September that he would hit the road regularly campaigning for Ms. Harris, but as the race comes to a close, that mostly hasn’t happened.

He appeared at one campaign event with Ms. Harris over Labor Day weekend. At one point, the president  suggested he would tour Pennsylvania alongside Gov. Josh Shapiro. That never materialized.

Over the weekend, Mr. Biden held a campaign event with union workers in Pittsburgh to boost Ms. Harris. Her campaign didn’t promote the appearance or offer a recap of it, as it does with most surrogates.