Speakers at Trump’s six-hour rally in New York insult Puerto Ricans and mock Harris’ race

NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump promised a “new American golden age” of closed borders and world peace as he gathered crowds at Madison Square Garden in his hometown in the final stretch of the 2024 presidential election against Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump headlined the more than six-hour rally that featured nearly 30 speakers, some of whom insulted Latinos and attacked Democratic nominee Harris because of her race, before vowing to “make America great again, and it will happen fast.”

“It’s called America first and it’s going to happen like no one has ever seen it before,” Trump said, adding: “We will not be defeated, we will not be conquered. We will be a free and proud nation again. Everyone will prosper.”

But the event also drew edged criticism from Democrats for remarks made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who spoke in the afternoon before Trump and called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now.”

The joke could prove politically problematic for Republicans who made it seeking the Latino voteand especially in the swing state of Pennsylvania, where hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans live.

According to the Pew Research Center, 5.6 million Puerto Ricans live in the United States analysis census data, and about 8% of them live in Pennsylvania.

Hinchcliffe, who hosts the “Kill Tony” podcast, also claimed that Latinos “love making babies” and made lewd jokes about them.

Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott, whose state is also home to hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans, wrote on X: “It’s not funny and it’s not true. Puerto Ricans are amazing people and amazing Americans!”

Democrats filed US Republican Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, who jumped on the joke. “When some asshole calls Puerto Rico for floating garbage… that’s what they think of anyone who makes less than them,” she said.

On Sunday in Philadelphia, Harris unveiled a novel policy proposal focused on Puerto Rico.

The former president’s 80-minute speech consisted mostly of his standard campaign promises and stories, although he did add a tax relief proposal to his list – benefits for people caring for infirmed or aging relatives at home. Harris too introduced policy on home care for seniors in early October.

Trump repeated his popular promises to “kick transgender madness from our schools,” “stop the invasion” at the border and restore peace to Ukraine and the Middle East, which he says would never have been torn apart by war if he were in office.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, told the crowd that his nationwide campaign for Trump had revealed that “something very powerful is happening on the base.”

“I’m telling you, there’s an energy that we haven’t seen before,” Johnson said.

New York, stop detour

Trump held the rally nine days before polls closed on November 5. Nearly 42 million Americans have already voted early, either in person or by mail, in more than two dozen states, according to the University of Florida’s election lab. early voting tracker.

Trump’s stop in New York was diverted from seven states in the election spotlight – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. His campaign also announced Sunday two upcoming stops in New Mexico and Virginia in the final week of the contest.

Still, both candidates made their way to Pennsylvania once again over the weekend, with Trump delivering speeches Saturday at Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania, and Harris spending Sunday rallies crowd in Philadelphia.

Harris spoke to the press in Philadelphia, a city she described as “a very important part of our path to victory.”

“I’m very optimistic about the enthusiasm and commitment that people from all walks of life have to vote and really invest in the future of our country,” Harris told reporters.

The vice president criticized Trump for using “dark and divisive language,” including his remarks this week that America is “trash of the world

“I think people are ready to turn the page,” she said.

Tucker Carlson is after Harris

Many speakers attacked Harris’ record – a standard feature of political rallies – but some comments made reference to her race. Trump’s childhood best friend, David Rem, clutched a crucifix and told the crowd that Harris was the “antichrist.”

Conservative media personality Tucker Carlson described Harris as a “Samoan Malaysian, former California prosecutor with a low IQ” as he floated a scenario in which Democrats consider their candidate after the election.

“Donald Trump has empowered all of us to speak the truth about the world around us,” Carlson said earlier in his speech.

Harris’ mother was Indian and her father was Jamaican. Trump has previously questioned her race during his presidency interview with the National Association of Black Journalists.

Carlson, fired by Fox News in April 2023, accused Democrats of “lies” and said in a mocking voice: “Jan. 6 there was an uprising, they were unarmed, but it was very much an uprising.”

The violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, by thousands of Trump supporters occurred after months in which the former president refused to acknowledge the 2020 presidential election, which was won by President Joe Biden.

Trump was preceded by twenty-eight speakers who began speaking just after 2 p.m. and continued the proceedings until the former president took the stage at 7:13 p.m. Trump’s wife, Melania, introduced him and spoke briefly during a uncommon appearance at a campaign rally.

The lineup included the founder of Death Row Records, television personality Dr. Phil and pro wrestling’s Hulk Hogan and Dana White – some of whom spoke at July’s four-day Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Speakers included billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, whose super PAC contributed more than $75 million to the campaign.

Musk told the crowds to vote early and that he wanted to see a “huge, landslide victory.”

“Make the margin of victory so large that you know what can’t happen,” he said, referring to debunked claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Focus on New York

The day was full of mystery about New York and Trump’s connections to it. New York is not only where Trump grew up and followed his father’s path in real estate, but now it’s also where he was convicted in May in a Manhattan court on 34 state felonies in connection with a secret financial scheme involving a porn star.

A vendor selling campaign equipment to fans waiting to enter Madison Square Garden on Sunday morning advertised a hat that read, “I’m voting for a convicted felon.”

Several speakers credited Trump with changing New York’s skyline. The 58-story Trump Tower stands on 5th Avenue in downtown Manhattan, among his other properties on the island.

“New York made Donald Trump, but Donald Trump also made New York,” said Lara Trump, Trump’s daughter-in-law and co-chair of the Republican National Committee.

Howard Lutnick, president and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and co-chair of the Trump campaign’s “transition team,” told the story of losing just over 650 of his employees in the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, organized by notorious terrorist Osama bin Laden.

“We must elect Donald J. Trump president because we must stamp out jihad,” Lutnick said.

Lutnick bantered with Musk on stage, estimating that the pair could cut federal spending by $2 trillion under a second Trump administration. Trump has tapped the two to head the government efficiency commission if elected.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who played a leading role in spreading Trump’s false claims of victory in the 2020 election, received a standing ovation from the entire room.

He accused Biden and Harris of spreading “socialism, fascism and communism.”

Giuliani, a key player in Trump’s false claim to have won the 2020 election, appeared at the rally just days after a federal judge in New York ordered him to turn over his apartment and valuables to election workers in Georgia who were found guilty of defamation. .

Giuliani, along with several other speakers, also suggested that Democrats were responsible for two assassination attempts against Trump.

“I’m not going to create a conspiracy,” Giuliani said, “but it’s funny that they tried to do everything else and now they’re trying to kill him.”

The accusation was the focus of the entire day-long event. Speaker after speaker suggested or outright blamed Democrats for the two attempts on Trump’s life, never mentioning the perpetrators. The gunman who took part in the first attempt was killed by law enforcement, and the second one, who never shot at Trump, was charged in Florida; neither was found to have ties to Democrats.

Trump focused on New York in some of his comments, referring to his childhood and adding that he sympathized with the city’s accused mayor, Eric Adams.

The rally ended not with Trump signing “YMCA” by the Village People, but with a live performance of “New York, New York” by Christopher Macchio.

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