Outrage was spreading Monday over racist jibes aimed at Puerto Ricans, Blacks and others by speakers at former President Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden.
A parade of Democratic leaders and A-list celebrities denounced the Trump campaign and comic Tony HInchcliffe for calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” at the packed Sunday rally, which included crude attacks on Latinos and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“There was nothing that’s an accident about what was said … it was an authentic depiction of what Donald Trump thinks about Puerto Rico,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Monday. “This is what these people believe and it’s not a joke.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries trashed Republicans for “invit(ing) this filth into our community.” Gov. Hochul said the hate-fest amounted to an “ugly, divisive, and racist” closing message to the Trump campaign.
Superstar Jennifer Lopez and reggaeton sensation Bad Bunny jumped off the political sidelines to support Harris in the hours after the shocking remarks, which could drive Latino voters away from Trump in the crucial final days before the Nov. 5 election.
Republicans were scrambling to play defense. Florida Rep. Byron Donalds said Monday that “no one agrees” with the ugly jokes about Puerto Ricans and attacked the Daily News for the “RACIST RALLY” front-page headline during an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“To the Daily News, is it a racist rally if a Black man from Florida who’s originally from New York speaks at that rally?” Donalds said. “I don’t think so.”
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, an endangered first-term Long Island Republican, said his mother is Puerto Rican and urged GOP voters to “stay on message.”
“The only thing that’s ‘garbage’ was a bad comedy set,” tweeted D’Esposito, who is locked in a tough reelection battle in his Democratic-leaning district.
Even the Trump campaign, which rarely gives any ground to criticism, took the highly unusual step of walking back the “island of garbage” remarks, even though critics noted that the jibes appeared on a teleprompter and were approved by the Trump campaign.
“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.” said Danielle Alvarez, a Trump campaign spokeswoman.
Rep. Nydia Velazquez of Brooklyn and activist Luis Miranda are among the city’s Latino community leaders holding a press conference Monday to condemn the “racist and anti-American attacks targeting Puerto Rico by Donald Trump and his extreme MAGA-right allies,” a spokesman said.
It remains to be seen whether the remarks will cost Trump at the ballot box. But with polls showing a dead-heat race, Democrats hope they could convince some undecided Latino voters away from him.
Latinos are a key constituency in several battleground states and make up 4% of registered voters in Pennsylvania, perhaps the most critical of the seven battleground states
About half of those Latinos are of Puerto Rican descent. They normally vote strongly Democratic, but some polls have shown Trump winning a greater share of support this year compared to the 2020 and 2016 races.
Georgia, which Trump lost by just 11,000 votes in 2020, also has an outsized Puerto Rican community.
Even before the ugly MSG rally, Trump had made controversial moves that alienated Puerto Ricans, especially his paper towel-tossing stunt as the island battled devastation from Hurricane Maria.
As president, he also mused about selling Puerto Rico, whose residents are U.S. citizens, or trading it for mineral rich Greenland.
Ironically, the speech took place hours after Harris campaigned at a Puerto Rican restaurant in Philadelphia and outlined her program for the island, which does not get a vote in presidential elections.
“Trump is the same old, tired playbook: Divide and demean,” Ian Sams, a Harris campaign aide, said Monday. “It’s a stark reminder of who he is.”
