US Vice President Kamala Harris has distanced herself from President Joe Biden’s latest ill-timed gaffe in which he appeared to call supporters of Donald Trump “garbage”.

Biden was reacting to a controversial comedian at one of Trump’s rallies who referred to the US territory of Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage”.

“The only garbage I see floating out there is his (Trump’s) supporters,” Biden said.

The comment triggered swift backlash from Republicans and has been compared to former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s dismissal of Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables” in 2016.

The White House rushed to downplay the gaffe by adding an apostrophe to the word “supporters”, inferring that Biden was referring to just one person.

In a White House transcript of the speech it read: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s – his – his demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”

On Thursday (AEDT), Harris pointed out that Biden had clarified his comments.

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

“You heard my speech last night and continuously throughout my career. I believe that the work that I do is about representing all the people, whether they support me or not.

“As president of the United States, I will be a president for all Americans, whether you vote for me or not.”

Trump seized on the comments, telling his supporters at a rally in North Carolina: “Joe Biden finally said what he and Kamala really think of our supporters. He called them ‘garbage’. And they mean it.

“You can’t lead America if you don’t love Americans, and you can’t be president if you hate the American people.”

Harris and Trump will make some of their final election pitches to voters in North Carolina, a swing state with a Democratic governor that has backed Republican presidential hopefuls for more than a decade.

North Carolina has 16 electoral college votes, making it one of the make-or-break battleground states that could decide who wins Tuesday’s presidential election.

The contest between Harris and Trump is too close to call nationally, and September’s hurricane damage has made North Carolina’s results especially hard to predict.

On Wednesday (local time), Harris will be in the fast-growing state capital Raleigh, with about 480,000 people. Trump will hold a rally in Rocky Mount, a city of 50,000.

Harris, a Democrat, and Trump, a Republican, are battling for a state that Trump won by under 1.5 percentage points in 2020.

Their visits follow Harris’s biggest rally, where on Tuesday night in Washington she warned of the dangers of returning Trump to office.

She spoke at the spot near the White House where on January 6, 2021, Trump told his supporters to march to the US Capitol and to “fight”.

At stake in the election is who will run the world’s richest and most powerful country. Harris and Trump diverge on support for Ukraine and NATO, abortion rights, taxes, basic democratic principles and tariffs that could trigger trade wars.

Residents in North Carolina, especially in the rural, hard-hit western region, are still trying to put their lives back together after devastating hurricane damage last month.

Many of the counties lean Republican in the region.

While some state officials – including some Republicans – praised federal clean-up efforts, Biden and Harris have been the targets of criticism and false rumours, including ones spread by Trump, over how much aid arrived and how fast it came.

Representative Andy Harris of Maryland, who chairs the hardline House Republican Freedom Caucus, sai last week that given the destruction, the state legislature should pre-emptively declare that Trump won the state’s 16 electoral college votes, to avoid “disenfranchised voters”.

The state’s governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, criticised Harris on CNN on Tuesday.

“North Carolina’s electoral votes will be reflected by the votes from the ballot box,” he said.

“We want to make sure that everybody … has an opportunity to have their voice heard.”

Trump leads Harris by just one percentage point in North Carolina, according to a polling average by FiveThirtyEight.

The last time the state backed a Democratic presidential nominee was Barack Obama in 2008.

If the election is as close as polls suggest, the outcome in North Carolina may remain unclear for a week or more.

More than a third of North Carolina’s registered voters have already cast ballots in the 2024 election, according to the state’s board of election.

Later on Wednesday, Harris will travel to Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, two other states in contention.

Her Madison, Wisconsin, rally will feature performances from musicians, including the band Mumford & Sons. Trump will also be in Wisconsin for a rally with former pro quarterback Brett Favre.

-with AAP