Trump says his New York rally full of vulgar, racist slurs was ‘like a lovefest’

PALM BEACH, Fla. – Donald Trump He held his rally in New York on Tuesday Madison Square Gardenan event, a “love fest” marked by vulgar and racist insults from many speakers.

It’s a term the former president also used for the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Speaking to reporters and supporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump claimed he had “never had a better event” than his Sunday night rally in his hometown of New York City.

“The love in that room. “It was breathtaking,” he said. “It was like a love fest, a real love fest. And it was an honor to be involved in that.”

This came despite criticism from Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign and many others — including Republicans — who watched racist comments targeted at Latinos, Blacks, Jews and Palestinians by pre-show speakers, as well as sexist slurs directed at Harris and the former Secretary. The state belongs to Hillary Clinton.

The set piece, in which comedian Tony Hinchcliffe joked that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage,” sparked particular outrage given the electoral importance of Puerto Ricans living in Pennsylvania and other key states. The Trump campaign took the rare step of distancing itself from Hinchcliffe’s joke about Puerto Rico but stuck with other comments.

Ángel Cintrón, chairman of the Puerto Rican Republican Party, called Hinchcliffe’s “feeble attempt at comedy” “embarrassing, ignorant, and utterly reprehensible.”

“There is no room for such ridiculous and racist comments. “They do not represent the conservative values ​​of republicanism anywhere in our nation,” Cintrón said in a statement.

Trump used the event at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday to criticize Harris’ record on the border and the economy, saying: “All of a sudden she broke it on everything” and “I’m going to fix it, and I’m going to fix it very well.” fast.”

With just a week left until Election Day, some Trump allies have raised alarm that the event that was supposed to highlight his closing message instead served as a distraction that highlighted voters’ concerns about Trump’s rhetoric and propensity for debate in the race’s close.

Speaking to ABC News before the event, Trump said he did not know the comedian who made the harshest insults, but did not condemn the comments.

“I don’t know him, someone put him there. “I don’t know who you are,” he said, insisting he had not heard Hinchcliffe’s comments, the network reported. But when asked what he thought of them, Trump “did not take the opportunity to condemn them and repeated that he had not heard the comments,” ABC reported.

Trump is set to campaign later Tuesday in Pennsylvania, a state where the population of Latino voters has more than doubled since 2000, from 206,000 to 620,000 in 2023, according to Census Bureau figures. More than half of them are Puerto Rican voters.

He will also hold a rally Tuesday night in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which has a large Hispanic population.

Former Republican Angelo Ortega, a longtime Allentown resident who plans to vote for Harris this time, said he couldn’t believe what he was hearing about Trump’s rally.

“I don’t know if my jaw dropped or if I was just angry or angry. I didn’t know what to feel,” said Ortega, who was born in New York but whose father is Puerto Rican. Ortega is campaigning for Harris and said he knows of at least one Hispanic GOP voter planning to switch from Trump to Harris as a result of Hinchcliffe’s comments.

“They lived through it. They experienced this. They were listening (to Trump), but they thought it was like the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Ortega, a member of the advocacy group Make the Road PA.

Trump “did not comment on Puerto Rico. The comedian commented on Puerto Rico. But this is his political forum.”

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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York, Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Michael Rubinkam in Allentown, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.