By james art
CNN
—
Former President Donald Trump closed his Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday with an ominous 80-minute speech in which he condemned his political rivals, attacking immigrants and vowing to invoke an 18th-century law to pave the way for mass deportations.
But the opening rally in New York — a mix of MAGA donors, entertainers and politicians — unleashed an eleventh-hour campaign furor that drew angry rebukes from Democrats and some Republicans who worried the revenge show would damage their reputation as moderate voters.
Local Trump loyalists, who make up many of the list of speakers ahead of the former president, took the opportunity to vent familiar grievances at some of Trump’s favorite targets. One failed Republican candidate called Harris “the antichrist.”
He hardly stood out.
The rally started with Tony Hinchcliffe, a comedian and podcast host attacking Puerto Rico – in the city that is home to the largest Puerto Rican population in the continental US. About 500,000 Puerto Ricans also live in the Pennsylvania battleground, where Harris campaigned Sunday.
“There’s a lot of things going on, like, I don’t know if you know this, but right now there’s literally a floating island of trash in the middle of the ocean,” he said. “I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
The line was well received by Trump supporters who filled the historic arena in midtown Manhattan. Trump recently took to calling the US “the world’s garbage can” when he railed against undocumented immigrants.
“These Hispanics also like to make babies. Just know they do,” Hinchcliffe continued.
After the rally, the Trump campaign tried to distance itself from Hinchcliffe, who like the other speakers was an invited guest, and his comments about Puerto Rico.
“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” Trump campaign spokesman Daniel Alvarez said in a statement to CNN.
But Harris’ campaign had already seized on the comments about Puerto Rico, quickly cutting the video and posting it on social media channels. On Sunday, the vice president visited a Puerto Rican restaurant in North Philadelphia, where he discussed his vision for the island along with plans to cut costs and create opportunities in Puerto Rican communities on the mainland.
Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, whose album Un Verano Sin Ti was the most streamed album worldwide in 2023, posted a video of Harris laying out his plan for Puerto Rico to his 45 million Instagram followers shortly after Hinchcliffe left the stage.
Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, whose re-election campaign hinges on significant support from the state’s Puerto Rican community, joined the backlash, writing X’s “joke,” “Not funny and not true. Puerto Ricans are amazing people and amazing Americans!”
Another Florida Republican, Congressman Carlos Jimenez, a close Trump ally, criticized the remarks. “This is not a joke. It’s completely classless and in poor taste,” he told X. “@TonyHinchcliffe is clearly not funny and definitely does not reflect my values or those of the Republican Party.”
New York GOP Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, who is facing competitive re-election, also responded to X, saying, “I’m proud to be Puerto Rican,” adding, “The only thing that’s ‘trash’ was bad comedy. Stay tuned.”
Hinchcliffe, also on social media, addressed the furor by saying his critics “have no sense of humour”.
“I love Puerto Rico and vacationing there. Taunted everyone… watch the whole set,” he wrote.
Trump — who was introduced by former first lady Melania Trump in his first rally speaking role this cycle — largely stuck to the script in his own remarks, including his now-common claim that his political rivals represent a treasonous “enemy within” .
“We are up against a massive, fraudulent, malicious left-wing machine that runs the Democratic Party,” the former president said. “They are clever and vicious, they are the enemy within, we must defeat them.”
Another warm-up act, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, repeated his old attacks on Harris and the idea, as he described it, of Americans celebrating her eventual election.
“It’s going to be pretty hard to look at (the country after Harris wins) and say, you know what, Kamala Harris, she got 85 million votes because she’s so impressive — like the first former California prosecutor from Samoa, Malaysia, with a low of intelligence to be elected president,” Carlson said, before exclaiming that anyone unimpressed by Harris would be called a “freak” or a “criminal.”
Republican politician David Rehm later took the microphone to call Harris “the devil” while brandishing a cross.
“She’s the antichrist,” Rehm cried, before saying he plans to run for mayor.
Another speaker, radio host Sid Rosenberg — who once sat next to Don Imus at WFAN, the area’s largest sports station — opened with an attack on Clinton, the Democratic nominee of eight years ago.
“She’s some sick bastard, that Hillary Clinton, huh?” he said, channeling Trump’s own past remarks. “What a sick son of an ab*ch.”
Rosenberg then turned his attention to the migrants now living in New York — and his fury at the local government’s attempts to feed and shelter them.
“You have homeless people and veterans — Americans, Americans — sleeping on their own poop on a bench in Central Park,” Rosenberg said. “But fucking illegals, they get what they want, right?”
This story has been updated with more from the rally.