Henry Bodkin
2024-10-29 19:46:29 UTC
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PermalinkThe Trump campaign is struggling to contain an October surprise of its own
making, just one week from Election Day.
A racist remark by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, one of many warm-up speakers
for former President Trump at a Sunday rally in New Yorks Madison Square
Garden, is reverberating hard.
Vice President Harris and other Democrats are working to make sure the gibe
reaches the ears of as many Latino voters as possible especially in the
swing states that will decide the election.
Republicans, including Trumps running mate, Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), are
trying to minimize the damage either by distancing themselves from what
Hinchcliffe said or by suggesting that a remark made in jest should not
spark such outrage.
At the rally, Hinchcliffe referred to Puerto Rico as a floating island of
garbage. He also used other racist tropes including a reference to Black
people and watermelons, and a crude reference linking procreation and
immigration.
The comments were slammed as offensive in their own right. But they could
also have serious electoral repercussions.
More than 400,000 people born in Puerto Rico or of Puerto Rican descent
live in Pennsylvania, the largest of the seven battleground states. The
state is essentially deadlocked, with Trump leading Harris by just four-
tenths of a percentage point in the polling average maintained by The
Hill/Decision Desk HQ.
There are also tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans in other swing states,
including Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina.
Democratic operative Chuck Rocha, an expert on the Latino vote, told this
column that he and a super PAC he advises, Nuestro PAC, had sent clips of
Hinchcliffes remarks to every Puerto Rican voter in Pennsylvania on
Monday.
Referring to the uproar and its effect on Trumps campaign, Rocha added,
Its an unforced error from a campaign that has no strategic vision.
Puerto Rican voters are very sensitive about their island and how you talk
about their island whether they themselves live on that island or in
Allentown.
Allentown, about 50 miles north of Philadelphia, is described by The
Philadelphia Inquirer as a majority Latino city and home to 34,000 Puerto
Ricans the eighth-largest Puerto Rican community in America.
Harris has been turning the screws on Trump over the remark.
The vice president on Monday cited Trumps New York event as having
highlighted a point that Ive been making throughout this campaign. He
is focused and actually fixated on his grievances, on himself and on
dividing our country.
Her campaign also launched a digital ad aimed at Latino voters that began
with Hinchcliffes words and asserted that Puerto Ricans deserve better.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who is of Puerto Rican descent,
described the Madison Square Garden rally as a hate rally during an
interview on MSNBCs Morning Joe on Monday morning.
On social media, Ocasio-Cortez hit back at Hinchcliffes defense that
these people have no sense of humor and that his joke had been taken out
of context to make it seem racist.
The New York congresswoman accused the comic of feeding red-meat racism
alongside a throng of other bigots to a frothing crowd.
The reaction from the Trump campaign and from the GOP more broadly
suggests they are well aware of the potential damage from the furor.
Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez told media outlets that the
comics comments did not reflect the views of the former president or his
campaign.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), whose state is home to more than 1 million people
of Puerto Rican descent, responded almost instantly to the controversy
Sunday evening, with a post on the social platform X saying the joke was
not funny and its not true.
Scott added that Puerto Ricans are amazing people and amazing Americans.
Also on social media, Rep. Anthony DEsposito (R-N.Y.) noted he was proud
to be Puerto Rican, adding the only thing thats garbage was a bad
comedy set.
Meanwhile, Vance said at a rally Monday that he had heard about though
not seen Hinchcliffes joke, but that he was so over people taking
offense easily.
To be sure, its possible that the furor does not dent Trumps chances.
The former president has not yet weighed in on the matter directly, but he
could disavow the comments or simply hope that the controversy fades, as so
many revolving around him have done in the past.
The Trump campaign continues to believe it can do better with Latino
voters, especially young men, than GOP nominees have done in the recent
past. Pro-Trump voices contend there are economic and cultural reasons why
Latinos are drawn to his platform.
But Democrats counter that the Puerto Rico controversy is especially potent
for several reasons: the swing states demographics, the capacity of other
non-Puerto Rican Latinos to take offense at the remarks, and of course the
proximity to Election Day.
According to José Parra, a Democratic strategist and a former senior
adviser to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.): If
Pennsylvania swings toward the Democrats, I think you can look back on this
as a pivotal moment.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4958098-the-memo-trump-campaign-
struggles-to-contain-puerto-rico-october-surprise/