The former Republican presidential candidate said there had been double standards over jokes made at rallies over the weekend.
Former Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy said on Monday during an interview appearance on CNN that the audience’s reaction to a joke about Puerto Rico at Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden « says a lot. »
The entrepreneur, who also spoke at the famed venue in New York City on Sunday afternoon, said there were double standards around the criticism that comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke about the U.S. territory had received compared to one made at a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris about Mexico.
Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a « floating island of garbage » during his Sunday speech, which garnered a mixed reaction from the crowd. The Trump campaign, meanwhile, told Newsweek that the joke did not reflect its views.
« The most remarkable part about this is the audience didn’t love the joke, they actually booed », Ramaswamy told CNN on Monday. « It says a lot about the audience’s response to a bad joke. »
Hinchcliffe’s routine also included other racist remarks about Latino families as well as a racist comment about Black people when he described carving watermelons instead of pumpkins for Halloween.
