Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe under fire for Puerto Rico remarks at Trump rally

A comedian who spoke at a New York City rally for former President Donald Trump has set off a firestorm of protest after his remarks were peppered with racist and anti-immigrant “jokes”.

A day after the event, the internet was lit up on Monday with outraged comments from politicians and Latino celebrities, denouncing the Trump campaign for hosting the speaker, comedian and podcaster Tony Hinchcliffe.

The rally, held at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, featured nearly 30 speakers, including some who made a series of racially charged and offensive remarks aimed at Latinos, Black Americans and Jewish citizens.

Hinchcliffe, whose set was intended to warm up the crowd, veered into what many described as offensive territory, quipping that Latinos “love making babies”, before likening their presence to an “invasion of the country”.

He then went on to say: “There’s a lot going on, like, I don’t know if you know this but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”

Hinchcliffe, 40, continued with racially insensitive jokes, mentioning Black friends he “carved watermelons” with and suggesting that Jewish people “have a hard time throwing paper”. His punchlines drew only scattered applause from the crowd.

Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump departs following a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on October 27 [Sarah Yenesel/EPA-EFE]

The comments about Puerto Rico, reminiscent of Trump’s “sh–hole” countries remarks in 2018, triggered swift ire from both Republicans and Democrats. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s campaign characterised Hinchcliffe’s set as a “vile, racist tirade”.

“Who is that jackwad?” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Harris’s running mate, also said during a live-streamed event with Democratic New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is of Puerto Rican heritage.

“When you have some a–hole calling Puerto Rico ‘floating garbage,’ know that that’s what they think about you. It’s what they think about anyone who makes less money than them,” Ocasio-Cortez added.

Hinchcliffe, responding to Walz and Ocasio-Cortez’s comments, accused the two Democrats of having “no sense of humour”.

But it wasn’t just Democrats who took aim at Hinchcliffe’s controversial set. Some Republicans — and typically staunch allies of Trump — also blasted the comedian’s incendiary rhetoric.

“This is not a joke,” Cuban-American and Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez posted online. “It’s completely classless & in poor taste,” added the former mayor of Miami, Florida.

“Tony Hinchcliffe clearly isn’t funny & definitely doesn’t reflect my values or those of the Republican Party.”

Trump, too, distanced himself from the comedian and his comments.

“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” Danielle Alvarez, a senior Trump campaign adviser, told Fox News.

Puerto Rican rappers Rene Perez Joglar, known by his stage name Residente, and Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, known by his stage name Bad Bunny, warm up the crowd in front of the Puerto Rican Capitol Building, before a protest march against Governor Ricardo Rosello, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Wednesday, July 17, 2019 [Dennis M Rivera Pichardo/AP Photo]

Puerto Ricans react

High-profile figures like pop star Bad Bunny, with his 45 million IG followers, along with actress and singer Jennifer Lopez, singers Luis Fonsi and Ricky Martin, as well as journalist Geraldo Rivera, quickly condemned the comments on social media, calling them inflammatory and out of touch.

“I will never forget what Donald Trump did and what he did not do when Puerto Rico needed a caring and a competent leader,” Harris said in a video reshared several times on Sunday by Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio.

“He abandoned the island, tried to block aid after back-to-back devastating hurricanes and offered nothing more than paper towels and insults,” Harris added, referring to a notorious incident in 2017 when Trump was giving out relief supplies after Hurricane Maria devastated the island.

Celebrities Martin and Lopez also reshared Harris’s video to hundreds of millions more followers, with Martin adding “I remember @kamalaharris.”

A man stands in a supermarket destroyed by Hurricane Maria in Salinas, Puerto Rico [File:Alvin Baez/Reuters]

For the 5.8 million Puerto Ricans living in the US, many of whom lived through the not-too-long-ago destruction of Hurricane Maria — and who felt abandoned by the Trump administration during relief efforts — the comments come at a pivotal time as Trump and Harris remain gridlocked in key swing states.

In battleground states like Pennsylvania, for example, where nearly 500,000 Puerto Ricans reside, it remains to be seen if fallout from the comments at Sunday’s rally could cost the former president key votes.

Florida, especially, boasts the biggest diaspora, with more than 1.1 million residents of Puerto Rican heritage. An additional 180,000 combined Puerto Ricans live in the swing states of Georgia, North Carolina, and Arizona, which could determine the outcome of the 2024 election.

Puerto Ricans are the second-largest Hispanic-origin population in the US, accounting for nine percent of the overall Hispanic demographic, according to the Pew Research Center. Although Puerto Ricans residing in Puerto Rico cannot vote in US presidential elections, those who have moved to the mainland are allowed to register to vote.