LAST UPDATE | 29 Oct
DONALD TRUMP DOUBLED down on anti-immigrant rhetorics today, calling for a mandatory death penalty in cases where migrants kill US citizens and mass deportations, amid calls for him to apologise for a comedian’s racist jokes.
The Trump campaign this week has suddenly found itself on the back foot as the fallout continues from a rally in New York on Sunday, during which a comedian made racist jokes.
At the rally in Madison Square Garden, a comedian named Tony Hinchcliffe made a joke in which he called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage”.
In a segment that took aim at immigrants, and Latinos in particular, Hinchcliffe said: “There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
He also said that Latinos “love making babies” while talking about the number of people of Latin American origin living in the US. The Republican candidate’s campaign team has issued a rare statement of contrition following the outcry over the racist joke.
Danielle Alvarez, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said in a statement that the joke “does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign”.
Celebrities, political opponents, members of the Christian church in Puerto Rico and even candidates from his own party have called on the Republican presidential candidate to apologise personally for the remarks since Sunday.
At a low-energy and slow event in Mar-A-Lago, Florida today – where Trump was over an hour late – he said his opponent, democratic Presidential nominee and Vice President of the US Kamala Harris, was running on a “campaign of hate”.
Trump did not apologise for the remarks today.
He again denounced criticism from his opponents that he is a ‘Nazi’ and claimed the Democratic Party had said that Madison Square Garden had been chosen because an American Nazi organisation had held a rally at the same location in 1939.
There is no evidence that anyone from the Harris campaign or the Democratic party have made those remarks or referenced the 1939 event when speaking about Trump’s rally on Sunday.
At today’s event, Trump claimed immigrants, Harris, US President Joe Biden and elected officials from the Democratic party are ‘destroying’ the United States.
He claimed that countries like Venezuela are seeing crime rates decrease due to the number of people who are leaving their cities for the US and that immigrants are being granted illegitimate ‘legal’ status by the Government.
Many of these claims were either not followed up by evidence or have no basis in fact.
CNN stopped its broadcast because of the “number of false claims” made by the Presidential candidate. Fox News also fact-checked the former President after he had made false statements claiming he won the 2020 election after the event concluded.
!!!! Harris Faulkner immediate after Trump's speech: "At the very beginning you heard the former president talk about a stolen election. And while he may feel a certain way, the facts remain Joe Biden was declared the winner ... states certified those results." pic.twitter.com/8cyHzclTPD
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 29, 2024
Trump said, if elected, his administration will seek to imprison anyone who enters the country again after being deported for up to 10 years. “We don’t want them back,” he told the crowd.
He said his administration will also seek to impose the death penalty on any ‘migrant’ who is found guilty of murder of an American citizen or law enforcement officer.
He claimed law enforcement recruitment figures are down because police officers do not want to deal with the increasing crime rate, which he attributes to and says is as the result of immigrants.
A report from last year said that recruitment in the US police is increasing for the first time since 2020 - when Trump was last in office. Claims that the rate of violent crime is increasing in the US are false and have long been debunked.
“We gotta get them out of here,” Trump said. “We’re gonna get them out fast.”
There are have been a number of calls for Trump to apologise personally.
The Archbishop of Puerto Rico, Roberto O. Gonzalez Nieves, has written a public letter to Trump saying, “It is not sufficient for your campaign to apologise. It is important that you, personally, apologise for these comments.”
Puerto Rico’s Republican Party chairman Angel M. Cintrón has also demanded an apology from Trump. There has been a slew of criticism from well-known pop culture figures as well.
Pop stars Jennifer Lopez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, and Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin have both publicly renewed support for Trump’s opponent Kamala Harris.
“This is what they think of us,” Martin wrote on Instagram.
Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny, who appeared at a Harris campaign event on Sunday, has also shared a video on Instagram in a show of support for the Democrat.
Republican politicians have come out with statements criticising the joke too.
Trump supporter and Republican Florida senator Rick Scott, who is in a tight race for reelection against a Latina congresswoman, was among the politicians and strategists who voiced anger on X.
“This joke bombed for a reason. It’s not funny and it’s not true,” he posted, while the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which has around three dozen members, called the rally “shameful.”
“Puerto Rico isn’t garbage, it’s home to fellow American citizens who have made tremendous contributions to our country,” Florida Senator Marco Rubio posted on X on Monday.
Puerto Rico isn’t garbage, it’s home to fellow American citizens who have made tremendous contributions to our country.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 28, 2024
I understand why some people were offended by a comedians jokes last night. But those weren’t Trump’s words. They were jokes by an insult comic who offends…
But he also made a point to note that “those weren’t Trump’s words. They were jokes by an insult comic who offends.”
The island of Puerto Rico is a US territory, meaning it is effectively under US control, and there is a large diaspora population in the United States, notably in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
While Puerto Ricans are technically citizens of the United States, they do not have an elected representative in the US Congress and Puerto Rican residents cannot vote in presidential elections.
Trump has his own history with Puerto Rico from his time in office, when his administration was harshly criticised for its response to the destruction caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017.
Includes reporting by Muiris O’Cearbhaill
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