Donald Trump’s campaign has faced backlash for several controversial remarks in the final days of his campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Former President Donald Trump’s final week in the race against Vice President Kamala Harris has been hampered by a series of controversial remarks and unforced errors that threaten to mute his closing argument to voters amid a deluge of Democratic attacks and legal backlash.
Throughout the week, Trump’s campaign aired thousands of ads focused on his policy platform: universal tariffs, deeper tax cuts and sweeping immigrant deportations. But what garnered the most attention were a comedian’s insults of Puerto Rico, Trump’s violent rhetoric about a political opponent, and a comment about women.
Last Sunday, the Republican presidential nominee kicked off his final week on the campaign trail with a buzzy rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The event was billed as an economic pitch to New Yorkers, but that message was drowned out by a circus of crude and at times, flat-out racist, remarks from some of the introductory speakers.
Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s opening set drew the loudest backlash after he called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean.”
Hinchcliffe’s comments triggered a wave of criticism from Puerto Rican celebrities like musician Bad Bunny, as well as from elected officials and voters.
“It’s not hitting well, I think people are pretty irritated”, Allentown, Pennsylvania Mayor Matt Tuerk told NBC News on Tuesday. “Enraged is a word that I’ve heard a few people say.”
Pennsylvania, a critical battleground state with 19 electoral votes, has a significant Puerto Rican population, heightening the political damage of Hinchcliffe’s offensive comments.
Trump campaign officials spent the following hours and days of the MSG rally doing clean-up and trying to distance their candidate from the controversy.
