- Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally was supposed to be part of a triumphant closing pitch.
- Instead, it’s become about one comedian’s offensive joke about Puerto Ricans.
- That could give Democrats one last shot to shake up a race that’s been static for a while.
Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday wasn’t supposed to be about one comedian’s offensive joke about Puerto Rico.
Set in a 20,000-seat stadium in the heart of deep-blue New York City, the former president’s rally was intended to be part of a triumphant closing pitch, one that highlighted his growing support among minority voters while generating media coverage about how Trump’s economic message is resonating with voters in urban areas.
Instead, things went off the rails.
In the hours before Trump spoke, several guest speakers made offensive remarks. The radio host Sid Rosenberg, who once called the second gentleman Doug Emhoff “a crappy Jew,” said at the rally that Democrats are “a bunch of degenerates, lowlives, Jew-haters and lowlives. Every one of them. Every one of them.” Tucker Carlson mockingly described Vice President Kamala Harris as someone who would be “the first Samoan-Malaysian, low-IQ, former California prosecutor ever to be elected president.” And Tony Hinchcliffe, a pro-Trump comedian, said Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean.”
Hinchcliffe’s comments generated the most attention, drowning out coverage of Trump’s actual speech and forcing the campaign to make the rare move of distancing itself from a rally speaker. “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” Danielle Alvarez, a senior Trump campaign advisor, said in a statement.
Coincidentally, Harris on Sunday was courting Puerto Rican voters in Philadelphia, where she announced a new set of proposals to boost the territory's economy. Pennsylvania is home to more than 450,000 Puerto Ricans, according to US Census data, the most of any major swing state. Multiple Puerto Rican celebrities, including the rapper and singer Bad Bunny, showed support for Harris on Sunday.
With just over one week to go until the election, Democrats may have just been handed one last opportunity to shake up the narrative of a presidential election that's grown calcified in recent weeks, with Trump slowly eating into a polling lead that Harris built after the presidential debate in September.
"A week in politics is an absolute lifetime," said Mike Nellis, a Democratic strategist and the founder and CEO of the Democratic campaign firm Authentic, adding that Harris now "has an opportunity to reframe the race."
'I want everyone in Philadelphia to see that clip'
It remains to be seen whether and how Puerto Rican voters will respond to what happened on Sunday. Hinchcliffe, who did not respond to a request for comment, wrote on X that Democrats have "no sense of humor" and that his joke had been "taken out of context."
But several Republicans immediately saw the remarks as a liability, issuing condemnations on social media as the rally remained ongoing. That included Sen. Rick Scott and Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, both Republicans from Florida, which is home to more than 1.1 million Puerto Ricans.
Rep. Anthony D'Esposito, a Republican of Puerto Rican descent who represents a swing district on Long Island, also condemned the remarks.
While Pennsylvania is home to the largest Puerto Rican population in a swing state — with communities in cities like Philadelphia and Reading — there are also more than 100,000 Puerto Ricans living in North Carolina and Georgia, two "Sun Belt" swing states.
Trump has been trying this year to broaden his appeal among Latino voters, including by holding a rally in the Bronx in May. He has primarily leaned into the economy, given that many voters maintain a positive view of the economy under the former president's tenure. Polling has generally given Trump the edge over Harris when it comes to handling the issue.
Democrats have been quick to seize on Hinchcliffe's comments. During a Twitch stream with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Gov. Tim Walz noted that there are "hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans across — in battleground states, that need to send them a message on this."
"I want everyone in Philadelphia to see that clip," said Ocasio-Cortez, who is Puerto Rican.
What remains to be seen is whether Democrats will put resources into making sure that happens. Spokespeople for the Harris campaign, along with Senate and House Democrats' campaign arms, did not respond to Business Insider's inquiries as to whether they would.
But Nellis, the Democratic strategist, said that there's still time for Harris in particular to capitalize on the moment.
"The Harris campaign has been pretty good about cutting new TV ads really quickly, so if they need to get stuff up on TV, they certainly can," Nellis said.
Digital ads, however, could be more tricky. Beginning at 12:01am Pacific Time on Tuesday, Meta will not allow campaigns to run any new political ads on their social networks. That blackout period will last a week until 11:59pm on Election Night.
Harris is set to deliver her own "closing argument" speech on Tuesday on the Ellipse in Washington, DC, where Trump held a rally shortly before a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6.