This year, much has been said about Donald Trump’s campaign reaching out to people of color, including Black and Hispanic voters, and hoping to do better with those groups than Republicans typically have in the past. There have even been some polling indications that he’s succeeded with this strategy.
However, that was before a comedian, appearing at Trump’s rally Sunday at New York’s Madison Square Garden, said something shockingly prejudiced about Puerto Rico.
Tony Hinchcliffe is a comedian who hosts a popular podcast called Kill Tony. Appearing at the rally as the opener, Hinchcliffe stated that “there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now- I think it’s called Puerto Rico:
Tony Hinchcliffe, who is one of the speakers at Donald Trump’s rally at MSG, felt the need to hurl a racist insult at the people of Puerto Rico: “there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
As a Puerto… pic.twitter.com/WJNQmw0lDt
— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) October 27, 2024
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The joke didn’t go over well which, as multiple wags pointed out, shows that it’s possible for something to be too racist for a Trump rally crowd.
Meanwhile, the same day, Kamala Harris visited a Puerto Rican restaurant in Philadelphia, where she discussed economic opportunities for Puerto Ricans- of which there is a large population in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, to which the Harris-Walz campaign has done a great deal of outreach.
Both campaigns are engaged in outreach to Puerto Rican voters today. Let’s see how it’s going. pic.twitter.com/Pf9Y9xxGcN
— Adam Bonin (@adambonin.bsky.social) (@adambonin) October 27, 2024
There were quite a few reactions to what Hinchcliffe said at the rally- including Gov. Tim Walz and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who were on a Twitch stream at the same time; AOC is herself of Puerto Rican heritage:
Tim Walz and AOC have meltdown on Twitch stream over Tony Hinchcliffe calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” at Trump’s MSG rally.
Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/kcdchZ5rQC
— AF Post (@AFpost) October 27, 2024
It’s not exactly clear who thought it was a good idea for a comedian to appear at a political rally, in a close presidential election, and take shots at various ethnic minorities, but Trump’s campaign, just over a week before the election, has done just that.
Featured image via YouTube screengrab
