Philadelphia-area leaders joined the growing group of politicians who publicly condemned racist comments made by a comedian towards Latinos and Puerto Rico during a Donald Trump rally in New York.
Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made the comments during preprogramming for the former president’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday.
Hinchcliffe, taking the first slot among nearly 30 warmup speakers, launched into a crude and disparaging set of jokes about the conflict in the Middle East, Black voters and Latinos.
“These Latinos, they love making babies, too. Just know that they do,” Hinchcliffe said, setting up his joke: “There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They c-- inside, just like they did to our country.”
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A few moments later, the comedian took a second swing at a key voting bloc within the community: Puerto Ricans.
“There’s a lot going on. 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,” he said to a scattering of claps and jeers.
The comedian also made a joke about one of his Black “buddies” and how they “carved watermelons” together.
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Trump campaign spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez in a statement said, "this joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
Hinchcliffe also responded to the controversy on the social media platform X.
These people have no sense of humor. 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. I love Puerto Rico and vacation there. I made fun of everyone…watch the whole set. I’m a… https://t.co/VFxHRcdv5k
— Tony Hinchcliffe (@TonyHinchcliffe) October 27, 2024
Philadelphia councilmember Quetcy Lozada (D-7th District) and other Latino leaders held a press conference on Monday condemning Hinchcliffe’s comments.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my community is that we will not be silenced in the face of injustice, especially not here in Philadelphia, the second city with the largest Puerto Rican population in the United States,” Lozada said.
Lozada also criticized Trump, referencing a past incident in which the former president threw paper towels to victims of Hurricane Maria while visiting Puerto Rico in 2016.
“Trump wants to act like he doesn’t hate Puerto Ricans but his record says otherwise. The truth is that those insults are in line with the trajectory of insults to Puerto Ricans by Donald Trump himself,” Lozada said. “Like when he threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans who were already hurting from being displaced by Hurricane Maria. Or when he seriously said he wanted to trade Puerto Rico to the Dutch Greenland. Let’s be clear, a second Trump term is a risk we cannot afford.”
Sen. Bob Casey also reacted to Hinchliffe’s comments while attending a press conference in West Philadelphia announcing the first phase of a project to build and repair three high rise apartment buildings.
“We have a lot of Americans of Puerto Rican descent here in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. More than 400,000 people,” Casey said on Monday. “And I think it’s incumbent upon every elected official and candidate to condemn what was said.”
Casey also called on Dave McCormick – his Republican challenger in the Pennsylvania senate race – to condemn the comments as well.
“And I would hope that journalists across the state would ask my opponent, do you condemn what was said or not? And we’ll see what he says,” Casey said. “But it’s critically important that this kind of language be categorially condemned.”
McCormick also responded to Hinchcliffe's comments.
"A comedian made an extremely inappropriate comment, one that doesn’t align with my own views on Puerto Rico, or President Trump’s," McCormick said. "I am grateful that so many Puerto Rican Americans call Pennsylvania home, and I would be honored to represent them in the United States Senate."
The Puerto Rican vote is sizable in Pennsylvania, which is arguably the hardest fought of the swing states in the 2024 election.
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris visited a Puerto Rican restaurant in North Philadelphia earlier on Sunday and released her policy related to the island saying she wants to create a task force to attract investment to fix the electrical grid. And Trump is headed on Tuesday to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where more than half of its population is Hispanic and a majority of them from Puerto Rico.
The comments on Puerto Rico were immediately criticized by Harris’ campaign, but were also called out by Angel Cintron, the head of the GOP on the island, and Republican U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, who represents parts of Miami and has participated in recent Trump events.
Popular Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny also threw his support behind Harris on Sunday by sharing a video of her shortly after Hinchcliffe’s comments. The video Bad Bunny shared with his 45 million Instagram followers shows Harris saying “there’s so much at stake in this election for Puerto Rican voters and for Puerto Rico.” A representative of the artist confirmed that Bad Bunny is supporting Harris.
