HARRISBURG, Penn. — Kamala Harris called Wednesday for Americans to “stop pointing fingers at each other” as she tried to push past comments made by President Joe Biden about Donald Trump’s supporters and “garbage ” and keep the focus on her Republican opponent in the closing days of the race.

“We know we have an opportunity in this election to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump, who has been trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other,” the Democratic nominee said.

Harris was holding rallies in a trio of battleground states as part of a blitz in the closing week of the election, with stops Wednesday in Raleigh, North Carolina; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Madison, Wisconsin.

She stressed unity and common ground, expanding on her capstone speech Tuesday in Washington, where she laid out what her team called the “closing argument” of her campaign.

“I am not looking to score political points,” the vice president said. “I am looking to make progress.”

As she waited for Harris to take the stage in Raleigh, 35-year-old Liz Kazal said she was “cautiously optimistic” about the election. She’s tried to volunteer for the campaign every week, including making phone calls, knocking on doors with her toddler daughter and raising money for Harris’ candidacy.

“You hope for the best and plan for the worst,” Kazal said.

Meanwhile, the White House rushed to explain that the president’s comment about “garbage” was a reference to rhetoric from Trump allies, not Trump’s supporters themselves. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden “does not view Trump supporters or anybody who supports Trump as garbage.”

The controversy began Tuesday — at the same time Harris was speaking near the White House — when Biden participated in a campaign call organized by the Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino. Biden used the opportunity to criticize Sunday’s Madison Square Garden rally, where a comedian described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”

“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American,” Biden said. “It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”

Harris told reporters before boarding Air Force Two for her flight to Raleigh that she disagrees “with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”

“I will represent all Americans, including those who don’t vote for me,” she said.

Her words were an attempt to blunt the controversy over Biden’s comments and put some distance between herself and the president, something she has struggled with in the past.

Republicans seized on Biden’s comments, claiming they were an echo of the time when Hillary Clinton, as the Democratic nominee in 2016, said half of Trump’s supporters belonged in a “basket of deplorables.”

“We know what they believe. Because look how they’ve treated you,” Trump said at his rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, on Wednesday. “They’ve treated you like garbage. The truth is, they’ve treated our whole country like garbage.”

He also said, “Without question, my supporters are far higher-quality than Crooked Joe’s,” using his nickname for the president.

After landing in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for another rally later in the day, Trump posed for photos while wearing a neon orange and yellow vest and sitting in the passenger seat of a garbage truck festooned with American flags and campaign signs.