As the Trump campaign faces backlash over a comedian at a recent rally calling Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage," a source close to the campaign says the jokes could have been much worse, according to a report.
"He had a joke calling [Vice President Kamala] Harris a 'c***,'" a campaign insider involved in discussions about the event told The Bulwark. "Let's say it was a red flag."
All speakers had been required to submit drafts of what they planned to say at Sunday's rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City to campaign staffers, four sources with the campaign told The Bulwark.
At Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, podcast host and comedian Kill Tony referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage,” during his set.
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) October 27, 2024
Notably, four percent of Pennsylvanians are Puerto Rican.
Around 500,000 people. pic.twitter.com/txE3UD0QVE
Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe's original plan to call Harris a "c***" was asked to be removed from the script. The sources claimed that the comments about Puerto Rico and a racist joke about Black people carving watermelons for Halloween were not included in the script, but were ad-libbed at the event.
Americans from all sides of the political spectrum took to social media following the rally to condemn Hinchcliffe's comments, including the Trump campaign.
"This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign," Danielle Alvarez, a Trump senior adviser, told The Bulwark.
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
Top Puerto Rican Republicans have announced that they are now withholding their support of Trump as a presidential candidate until a formal apology is issued about the comments.
Hinchcliffe responded to the backlash in a post to 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."
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