The Trump campaign is facing heavy backlash after stand-up comic Tony Hinchcliffe told a series of poorly received jokes at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday.
“I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” Hinchcliffe said during his set, which also included lewd comments about Latinos, Jewish people and Black people.
“These Latinos, they love making babies” Hinchcliffe also said during his set, crudely suggesting that the community doesn’t use the pull-out birth control method. “There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside. Just like they did to our country.”
Hinchcliffe’s jokes were immediately condemned by Democrats, including vice-presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has Puerto Rican roots. But the jokes also caught the attention of major Puerto Rican celebrities, including pop superstar Ricky Martin, who shared a clip of Hinchcliffe’s set on his Instagram: “This is what they think of us,” he wrote.
Bad Bunny, an immensely popular Puerto Rican reggaeton star, threw his support behind the Democratic ticket shortly after Hinchcliffe’s set, sharing with his 45 million Instagram followers a video of Kamala Harris saying “there’s so much at stake in this election for Puerto Rican voters and for Puerto Rico.” A Bad Bunny representative confirmed to the Associated Press that Bad Bunny is supporting Harris.
Luis Fonsi, a Puerto Rican singer best known for hit song “Despacito,” also responded to Hinchcliffe’s set: “going down this racist path ain’t it,” he wrote on Instagram.
In a rare move, the Trump campaign also distanced itself from Hinchcliffe. “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said in a statement. Angel Cintron, who is head of the GOP in Puerto Rico, also chimed in, writing: “This rhetoric does not reflect GOP values.”
Following the appearance, Hinchcliffe defended himself on X, responding directly to a clip shared by the Harris campaign featuring Gov. Walz responding to his jokes.
“Wild that a vice presidential candidate would take time out of his ‘busy schedule’ to analyze a joke taken out of context to make it seem racist,” Hinchcliffe wrote. “I love Puerto Rico and vacation there. I made fun of everyone…watch the whole set. I’m a comedian Tim…might be time to change your tampon.”
Who is Tony Hinchcliffe?
Hinchcliffe, 40, is a popular comedian from Youngstown, Ohio. He’s best known as a “roast” comic, a style of humour where a specific guest or celebrity is subjected to a string of stinging, often crude jokes at their expense. He has written and appeared on eight Comedy Central Roasts, including ones for Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady. He’s also opened as a stand-up comic for Joe Rogan and Jonathan Ross.
He also hosts a popular podcast called “Kill Tony,” which showcases amateur comedians who take turns doing one-minute sets, judged by a rotating panel of comedians and other celebrities. The “Kill Tony” YouTube channel boasts some 1.89 million subscribers.
Hinchcliffe is not new to controversy. In 2021, he used an anti-Asian racial slur against comic Peng Dang. Following the incident, he was dropped by his agency and forced to cancel a number of high-profile media appearances.
What else did Hinchcliffe say during his appearance?
Though his comments about Puerto Rico dominated the headlines on Monday, Hinchcliffe also made a number of jokes that observers are calling racist or antisemitic.
At one point, Hinchcliffe spotted a Black man in the audience, making reference to a racist trope involving watermelon. “That’s cool, Black guy with a thing on his head. What the hell is that, a lamp shade? Look at this guy! Oh, my goodness. Wow! I’m just kidding, that’s one of my buddies. He had a Halloween party last night. We had fun, we carved watermelons together. It was awesome!”
Elsewhere, while discussing Israel’s ongoing siege on Gaza, Hinchcliffe made an antisemitic joke:
“Why is our money involved in these wars when it comes to Israel and Palestine?” he said. “We’re all thinking the same thing: settle your stuff already. Best out of three: rock, paper, scissors. You know, the Palestinians are going to throw rock every time. You also know the Jews have a hard time throwing that paper, you know?”
Tucker Carlson and Rudy Giuliani also accused of racist remarks
Hinchcliffe wasn’t the only speaker at the Trump rally in New York City accused of making racist remarks. Former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson is in hot water after he misrepresented Kamala Harris’s ethnicity in a bizarre rant in which he referred to the Democratic candidate as “Samoan-Malaysian, low-IQ, former California prosecutor.” Harris’s mother is from India and her father from Jamaica.
Carlson later made reference to the “great replacement theory,” a racist theory he has espoused in the past:
“People know in a country that has been taken over by a leadership class that actually despises them and their values and their history and their culture and their customs, really hates them to the point that it’s trying to replace them,” he said. “They know someone who actually has affection for them and that’s Donald Trump. And it’s requited.”
Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is facing accusations of anti-Palestinian racism after he suggested that “Palestinians are taught to kill” Americans as infants.
“She wants to bring them to you,” Giuliani said, accusing Harris of “being on the side of terrorists.”
“They may have good people, he continued. “I’m sorry I don’t take a risk with people who are taught to kill Americans at two.”
Can Puerto Ricans vote in the upcoming presidential election?
Puerto Rico is a Caribbean island and unincorporated U.S. territory. Though the 3.3 million residents of Puerto Rico help choose each party’s nominee for president in the primary selection process, they are not allowed to vote for the U.S. president in the upcoming election.
However, roughly 5.8 million Puerto Ricans do live in the U.S., making them the second-largest Latino group in the country. They also make up a sizeable portion of the vote in Pennsylvania, which is arguably the hardest fought of the swing states in the 2024 election.
What are people saying about the Trump rally?
In a report for the New York Times, Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden was described as “A Closing Carnival of Grievances, Misogyny and Racism.”
“The inflammatory rally was a capstone for an increasingly aggrieved campaign for Donald Trump, whose rhetoric has grown darker and more menacing,” the report read.
“The New York Civil Liberties Union does not endorse candidates for office,” the affiliate of the ACLU wrote on X. “That does not mean we stay silent when a major political rally in New York City platforms racism and misogyny. Hate has no place in our New York.”
New York Congressman Ritchie Torres chimed in on X: “I’m tempted to call Tony Hinchcliffe racist garbage, but doing so would be an insult to garbage. When casting their ballots at the voting booth, Latinos should never forget the racism that Donald Trump seems all too willing to platform.”
New York State Senator Jessica Ramos called Giuliani “a disgrace to New York and a discredit to humanity” in a post on X. “In a night of disgusting lows, hearing Rudy Giuliani — no stranger to defamation — lie about an entire culture and endorse the murder of tens of thousands of Palestinian children may be the most vile and monstrous yet.”
On Monday, American rapper Fat Joe, who has Puerto Rican and Cuban roots, also spoke out against Hinchcliffe and former president Donald Trump: “The man threw towels at you and blocked financial aid in Hurricane Maria and you Bori’s think he’s your guy WAKE UP VOTE!!!!!!! This is what he really thinks about you,” he wrote on Instagram.
With files from The Associated Press
