By james art
CNN
—
Jennifer Lopez, who campaigned with Kamala Harris on Thursday in Nevada, said Donald Trump’s campaign offended “every Latino in this country” with his Sunday rally in Madison Square Garden, where a comedian mocked Puerto Rico.
The pop star and actress’ comments at Harris’ rally in Las Vegas came as outrage continued to reverberate over the pro-Trump comedian calling the US island territory of Puerto Rico – where Lopez’s parents were born – a “floating island of trash”.
“At Madison Square Garden, he reminded us who he really is and how he really feels,” Lopez said of Trump. “It wasn’t just Puerto Ricans who were offended that day, right? It was every Hispanic in this country, it was humanity and anyone of decent character.
Harris’ Las Vegas stop with Lopez came during a jaunt through the hotly contested western battlegrounds of Arizona and Nevada — where CNN polls released earlier this week showed extremely close races with no clear leader.
The vice president has deployed a growing list of celebrities and musicians with huge social media followings in the final days of the race as her campaign seeks to woo key constituencies — including black voters in Georgia and Latinos outside the West. That list ranges from music legends Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen, who have played Harris events in Georgia, to the stars of Marvel’s “The Avengers” movies, who supported the vice president on social media Thursday.
But the most impactful support may come from Puerto Rican stars like Lopez, who have become more vocal since Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden.
“This is our country, too,” Lopez said Thursday night.
At one point she held back her tears.
“You know what? We have to be emotional. We should be upset. We should be scared and outraged. We must. Our pain matters. We matter,” Lopez said. “Your voice and your voice matter.”
Other Puerto Rican celebrities have also been critical of Trump in recent days.
Bad Bunny, one of the world’s biggest Latin music stars, shared Harris’ platform for Puerto Rico on social media on Sunday. And reggaeton star Nicky Jam, who has previously appeared on stage with Trump, withdrew his support for the former president, saying: “Puerto Rico needs to be respected.”
Trump has long tried to make inroads with black and Latino men. In the critical state of Pennsylvania in particular, a significant portion of the rapidly growing Latino population is of Puerto Rican heritage.
The Harris campaign on Thursday launched a Spanish-language ad aimed at reaching Latino voters that highlights comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s remark at a Trump rally.
“Puerto Rico is an island of scientists, poets, educators, stars and heroes,” says the ad’s narrator in Spanish. “We are not trash, we are more.”
The Trump campaign sought to distance itself from Hinchcliffe, with Trump campaign spokesman Daniel Alvarez saying in a statement after the rally, “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
And Trump’s campaign tried to shift attention to another “trash” remark — pointing to a comment by President Joe Biden on Tuesday night that many interpreted as referring to Trump supporters as “trash.” (The White House and Biden quickly tried to clear up the comment, saying the president was referring to “supporters,” both in the comedian and the rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally.)
Harris, from Las Vegas, said Trump is “all about hate and division.” She said that if re-elected, he would reinstate the policy that led to the separation of migrant families at the US-Mexico border.
Lopez repeatedly said Harris “gets it” — and said she understands what it means for immigrant families to pursue the American dream because her own parents were immigrants, too.
She also said she believes in “the power of women.”
“Women have the power to make the difference in this election,” Lopez said.
The singer’s comments came the same day Harris took advantage of Trump’s remark in Wisconsin the night before that he would stand up for women “whether women like it or not.” He said he would protect them “from incoming migrants” and “from foreign countries with missiles and many other things.”
The vice president told reporters Thursday that Trump’s comment was “very offensive to women, in terms of misunderstanding their agency, their power, their right and their ability to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies.” .
She pointed to Trump’s appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade’s national protection of abortion rights. Trump said earlier this month he would veto a national abortion ban, but he has wavered on the issue in the past, and many Republican-led states have imposed their own restrictive laws.
Polls show this year’s election could produce a historic gender gap, with a majority of men backing Trump and women backing Harris — a reality that helps explain Harris’ emphasis on an issue that has proven powerful with voters, especially women , following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision.
On the campaign trail in Reno, Nevada, on Thursday, Harris again brought up Trump’s remarks, which she called “outrageous.”
“This is someone who just doesn’t respect women’s freedom or women’s intelligence to make decisions about their own lives,” she said.
CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez, Nikki Carvajal, Samantha Waldenberg, DJ Judd and Ebony Davis contributed to this report.