Trump called his rally in New York “a real love fest”

Policy

“Love is in this room. It was exciting,” he said. “It was like a love celebration, a real love celebration. And it was an honor to be a part of it.”

ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON, MICHELLE L. PRICE and MICHAEL RUBINK, Associated Press

October 29, 2024

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Called on by some allies to apologize for racist comments made by speakers at his weekend rally, Donald Trump took the opposite approach Tuesday, saying he was “honored to participate” in such an event and called for the scene to be a “love fest,” the same term he used to describe the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump gathered supporters and reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort two days after the massive rally at Madison Square Garden featured a series of crude remarks from various speakers, including an appearance by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe in which he joked that Puerto Rico is a “floating island of garbage.” Some of Trump’s top Republican allies condemned the remarks, and his campaign took the rare step of publicly distancing itself from Hinchcliffe’s joke but not the other comments.

But given the opportunity to apologize at events and in interviews, Trump leaned in instead. Speaking from his Florida resort, he said “there has never been such a great event” as his rally Sunday in his hometown of New York.

“Love is in this room. It was exciting,” he said. “It was like a love celebration, a real love celebration. And it was an honor to be a part of it.”

Just a week before Election Day, some Trump allies expressed dismay that a rally that was supposed to showcase the Republican presidential nominee’s final message in grand New York style was instead serving as a distraction, even a hindrance, given the electoral importance of Puerto Ricans. living in Pennsylvania and other key swing states.

“This is not the time to criticize Puerto Rico or Latinos,” former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who challenged and then endorsed Trump for the GOP presidential nomination, said in an interview on Fox News.

Trump was later scheduled to hold a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a city with a large Latino population, where he will be joined by Puerto Rico’s shadow U.S. Sen. Zoraida Buxo, said a campaign official who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the official rally. announcement. She expressed her support for Trump on social media site X, saying Trump is the “strong leader” that Puerto Rico needs.

Still, there was anger in Allentown. Yvette Figueroa, 61, stood near the rally with a trash can labeled “Trash Trump.”

She said of the insult and Trump: “The person who said it was vetted by him. So this is what he did, which means he must take responsibility for what he said. Now it’s too late to say “sorry.” I don’t want an apology, I want justice, and justice will come on November 5th.”

The fallout from the Madison Square Garden event could highlight voters’ concerns about Trump’s rhetoric and his penchant for controversy in the final stretch as both campaigns battle for votes. Speakers at the rally also made racist comments about Latinos, blacks, Jews and Palestinians, as well as sexist slurs about Trump’s Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

On Tuesday, Trump tried to overcome differences and return to Harris, criticizing his rival’s record on the border and inflation, declaring that “on every issue she broke them” and “I’m going to fix it and fix it.” it’s very fast.” He did not answer journalists’ questions.

In an interview with ABC News earlier Tuesday, Trump tried to distance himself from Hinchcliffe but did not condemn his comments.

“I don’t know him. Someone put it there. I don’t know who he is,” Trump said, according to the network, insisting he had not heard Hinchcliffe’s comments. When asked what he thought of them, Trump “did not take the opportunity to condemn them, repeating that he had not heard the comments,” ABC reported.

The comments sparked outrage among Puerto Rican leaders.

The archbishop of Puerto Rico called on Trump to disavow them, saying it was not enough for the campaign to say the joke did not reflect Trump’s views. The president of the Puerto Rican Republican Party called Hinchcliffe’s “poor attempt at comedy” “disgraceful, ignorant and completely reprehensible.”

In Pennsylvania, where Trump was scheduled to campaign later Tuesday, the number of eligible Latino voters has nearly tripled since 2000. More than half are eligible voters from Puerto Rico.

Angelo Ortega, a longtime Allentown resident and former Republican planning to vote for Harris, said he couldn’t believe what he was hearing about Trump’s rally.

“I don’t know if my jaw dropped or I was just so annoyed, angry. I didn’t know what to feel,” said Ortega, who was born in New York but whose father came from Puerto Rico. Ortega campaigned for Harris and said he knows of at least one Latino GOP voter planning to switch from Trump to Harris as a result of Hinchcliffe’s comments.

“They got it. They had it. They listened (to Trump) but said they thought it was like the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Ortega, a member of the advocacy group Make the Road PA.

Still, some Puerto Rican voters were unfazed. Mariselis Torres, 24, a waitress studying to be a radiologist, was waiting to attend the rally in Allentown and said she and her family laughed at Hinchcliffe’s joke.

“If you don’t understand humor, that’s what I’m saying: People are too soft these days,” said Torres, whose father is from the island.

Harris’ campaign released an ad that will air online in battleground states, targeting Puerto Rican voters and highlighting the comedian’s remarks.

At a roundtable outside Philadelphia on Tuesday afternoon, Trump received praise from former Puerto Rican occupational therapist Maribel Valdez. “Puerto Rico supports you, and Puerto Rico loves you,” Valdez told him.

Trump thanked her and recalled his administration’s efforts to help the island after the storms. “I think no president has ever done more for Puerto Rico than I have,” responded Trump, who delayed releasing billions of dollars in aid to repair years of hurricane damage in Puerto Rico until shortly before the 2020 election. .

Gomez Licon and Price reported from Palm Beach, Florida. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York, Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Nicholas Ricciardi in Denver contributed to this report.