Former President Donald Trump is defending his rally at Madison Square Garden in New York, which was criticized for its hateful and racist rhetoric.
“The love in that room was breathtaking…politicians who have been doing this for a long time, 30 and 40 years, said there had never been such a beautiful event. It was like a love fest,” Trump said from his March a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday.
About 20,000 thousand people attended the event, enthusiastically showing their support for Trump. However, much of their support was overshadowed by speakers who made harsh remarks.
“I don’t know if you know this, but there is literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah, I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” comedian Tony Hinchcliffe joked at the start of the rally.
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The comment quickly went viral, especially among those in the Puerto Rican community. Several influential Puerto Rican celebrities, including Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin, expressed their support for Kamala Harris following the comment.
Although Trump did not comment on Hinchcliffe’s joke during his speech on Tuesday, he told ABC that he did not know the comedian and did not hear the remarks.
The Puerto Rico joke wasn’t the only comment criticized at Trump’s rally. Rudy Giuliani claimed that Palestinians are taught to kill by age 2, while others described Harris as the “devil” and the “Antichrist.”