By james art ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Urged by some allies to apologize for racist comments made by speakers at his rally over the weekend, Donald Trump took the opposite tack Tuesday, saying it was an “honor to be a part” of such an event and calling the scene a “love fest” — the same term he used to describe the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump gathered supporters and reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort two days after a mass rally in Madison Square Garden features a number of blunt remarks from various speakers, including a range of comedian Tony Hinchcliffe in which he joked that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of trash.” Some of Trump’s top Republican allies condemned the remarks, and his campaign took the rare step of publicly distancing itself from Hinchcliffe’s joke, but not the other comments.
But given the opportunity to apologize at multiple events and in interviews on Tuesday, Trump instead leaned back. Speaking at his Florida resort, he said “there has never been an event as beautiful” as his Sunday rally in his hometown of New York.
“The love in this room. It was breathtaking,” he said. “It was like a love fest, an absolute love fest. And it was an honor for me to participate.”
On Tuesday night, he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he didn’t know anything about Hinchcliffe, but said, “I can’t imagine it’s a big deal.” However, he later agreed that he “probably shouldn’t have been there.”
Just a week ago Election daysome Trump allies expressed concern that the rally, which was supposed to highlight the Republican presidential nominee’s closing message in grand New York fashion, instead served as a distraction and even responsibilitybearing in mind electoral importance to Puerto Ricans who live in Pennsylvania and other key swing states.
“This is not a time for anyone to criticize Puerto Rico or Latin Americans,” former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, who challenged Trump for the GOP presidential nomination and later endorsed him, said in an interview with Fox News Channel.
Trump later held a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a city with a large Hispanic population, where Puerto Rico’s shadow U.S. senator Zoraida Buxo joined him and defended the former president’s record.
“We need this guy to be our commander-in-chief,” said Bucso, who cannot vote in the Senate because Puerto Rico is not a state. “He will make us feel safe and protect us.”
Still, there was anger in Allentown. Yvette Figueroa, 61, stood outside the rally site holding a trash can with the words “Trash Trash” on it.
She said of the insult and Trump: “The person who said it was vetted by him. So that’s what he did, so he has to take responsibility for what he said. It’s too late to say sorry. I don’t want an apology, I want justice, and justice is on November 5.”
The fallout from the Madison Square Garden event risked underscoring voters’ concerns about Trump’s rhetoric and penchant for controversy in the closing stretch, as both campaigns vie for votes. Speakers at the rally also made racist comments aimed at Latinos, blacks, Jews and Palestinians, along with sexist slurs directed at Trump’s Democratic rival, Vice Pres. Kamala Harrisand former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In an interview with ABC News earlier Tuesday, Trump said he did not know Hinchcliffe but did not condemn what he said.
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“I don’t know him. Someone put it there. I don’t know who he is,” Trump said, according to the network, insisting he had not heard Hinchcliffe’s comments. When asked what he was doing with them, Trump “didn’t take the opportunity to condemn them, saying he didn’t hear the comments,” ABC reported.
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In the Hannity interview, Trump said people were trying to make the comedian’s appearance a “big deal” when “it has nothing to do with the party, it has nothing to do with us.”
Asked later in the interview if he didn’t want the comic gone, Trump said, “Yeah, I mean, I don’t know if it’s a big deal or not, but I don’t want anybody to make nasty or stupid jokes. ” He added: “Probably shouldn’t have been there, yeah.”
Later Tuesday, President Joe Biden, during a conversation hosted by the Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino, condemned the comic’s joke, saying, “The only garbage I see floating around there are his supporters.” He later tried to clarify his commentsaying he was talking about the “hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico being spewed by the Trump supporter.”
The comments at the Madison Square Garden rally drew the ire of Puerto Rican leaders.
The archbishop of Puerto Rico urged Trump to disavow them, saying it was not enough for the campaign to say the joke did not reflect Trump’s views. The president of the Republican Party of Puerto Rico called Hinchcliffe’s “poor attempt at comedy” “disgraceful, ignorant and completely reprehensible.”
In Pennsylvania, where Trump campaigned Tuesday night, the Hispanic voting population has tripled since 2000. More than half of them are Puerto Rican voters.
Angelo Ortega, a longtime Allentown resident and former Republican who plans to vote for Harris, said he couldn’t believe what he heard about Trump’s rally.
“I don’t know if my jaw dropped or if I was just so irritated, angry. I didn’t know what to feel,” said Ortega, who was born in New York but whose father is from Puerto Rico. Ortega has campaigned for Harris and said he knows of at least one GOP voter from Spain who plans to switch from Trump to Harris as a result of Hinchcliffe’s comments.
“They had it. They had it. They listened to (Trump), but they said they thought it was like the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Ortega, a member of the Make the Road PA advocacy group.
Still, some Puerto Rican voters weren’t fazed. Maricelis Torres, 24, a waitress studying to be a radiologist, waited to enter the rally in Allentown and said she and her family laughed at Hinchcliffe’s joke.
“If you don’t get the humor, that’s what I’m saying, people are too soft these days,” said Torres, whose father is from the island.
Harris’ campaign has released an ad that will run online in battleground states targeting Puerto Rican voters and highlighting the comedian’s remarks.
At a roundtable outside Philadelphia on Tuesday afternoon, Trump received praise from a retired occupational therapist from Puerto Rico, Maribel Valdez. “Puerto Rico has your back and Puerto Rico loves you,” Valdez told him.
Trump thanked her and recalled his administration’s efforts to help the island after storms. “I don’t think any president has done more for Puerto Rico than I have,” replied Trump, who delayed release billions of dollars in aid to rebuild Puerto Rico from hurricane damage done years ago, just before the 2020 elections.
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Gomez Licon and Price reported from Palm Beach, Florida. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York, Danica Cotto in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.