Ahead of Donald Trump’s appearance on Tuesday in the Latino town of Allentown, Pennsylvania, comedian’s racist joke about Puerto Ricans At the former president’s Madison Square Garden rally, he received a new blow.
one editorial support El Nuevo Día, Puerto Rico’s largest national newspaper, expressed outrage over Vice President Kamala Harris’ remarks at a New York rally on Sunday.
“Today, all of us who love this beautiful garden of America and the world feel pain inside and our hearts are heavy with anger and pain,” the editorial said.
“Trump has been perpetuating a discourse of disdain and misinformation against the island for years, revealing an obsession and hatred of a people who do not have the voting power to defend themselves because the three million American citizens who live in Puerto Rico cannot vote. in the presidential elections”, the editorial says. “But the other five million people who live in the United States and whom they call garbage can also vote.”
One of those five million Puerto Rican voters is Allentown resident Efrain Davila.
He told NBC News that he believes Trump is “going to make it happen,” referring to the jokes targeting his home country. Davila, an independent who previously voted Republican, said she no longer supports the party because “it’s all about Trumpism and MAGA.”
Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny added to the firestorm over the revelations released on Tuesday. a breathtaking 8-minute video Narrated by Oscar-winning Puerto Rican actor Benicio Del Toro. With stunning cinematography, the video showcases how the people of Puerto Rico have endured trials and tribulations throughout history and overcome the odds to excel as world-renowned artists, activists, athletes and political activists. Bad Bunny captioned the edgy and powerful video “trash” on Instagram.
At a business roundtable in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday afternoon, Trump said that no president has done more for Puerto Rico than he has, after one attendee told him that Puerto Rico loves him and is behind him. He did not mention the joke.
Hinchcliffe made the racist jokes during an election cycle in which he said Republicans were sending a message to Latinos as Americans. Trump’s campaign earlier this year Rebranded Latinos for Trumphis Hispanic aid group, Latin Americans for Trump.
Democratic pollster Carlos Odio, co-founder of research firm EquisLabs, said that messaging has helped Trump and Republicans engage Latinos on the economy, but racial and cultural identity remains a push button.
Republicans say: “You belong to our party. Ignore all the nasty rhetoric, because we’re where you are in the economy,” Odio said. “Points like this reinforce that many Hispanics, including Puerto Ricans in this case, feel like Republicans at the end of the day, they’re not going to seek them out.”
Rafaela Gomez of Pennsylvania attended the Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday. Gomez, a Dominican native, returned to his hometown of Allentown on Tuesday. He said he still supports Trump.
“Trump had nothing to do with it,” Gomez said.
Gomez, who is married to a Puerto Rican man who also supports Trump, said that while she “disapproves of calling the people of Puerto Rico trash,” the joke was intended to expose “how the current administration has failed Puerto Rico.”
Hinchcliffe did not refer to the Biden administration or any other administration when talking about Puerto Rico.
A Hispanic Federation/Latino Victory poll of Latinos in battleground states shows Harris with 57% of Hispanics in Pennsylvania, Trump with 27% and 11% undecided. The poll of 1,900 registered Latino voters in eight battleground states from Oct. 2-10 had an overall margin of error of 2.3%.
When Trump announced his candidacy for the presidency in 2016 It trashes people from Mexico – calling them rapists and saying they bring crime and drugs – some voters interpreted it as a reference only to immigrants. He lost some GOP Latino supporters with that comment and more he continued at the Arizona rally, but others stayed, and he has since attracted new Latino support.
But at his rally, the comedian attacked Puerto Ricans who are natural-born American citizens, not immigrants, said Mike Madrid, a Republican consultant who opposes Trump.
Madrid said Harris is already doing better with Latin America and Republican defectors. The backlash from the comments, according to Madrid, should change a small part of the votes, from 1% to 2% in his favor and in favor of “the whole state”.
The outrage expressed by Puerto Rican celebrities like Bad Bunny, JLo, Marchc Anthony and Geraldo Rivera, who has expressed support for Harris or disdain for Trump and the comedian’s jokes on social media, could have that effect, he said.
Madrid added that the comedian’s racist jokes are harder to dismiss because they didn’t come from Trump.
“Trump has so numbed us to his racist vitriol that if (the joker) was Donald Trump, he would be gone an hour after it happened,” Madrid said. “When other voices on stage make racist attacks, the shock and shame is rekindled.”
Frankie Miranda, president and CEO of the Hispanic Federation, an unaffiliated, Latino-centric nonprofit, called the trashing joke “a real punch to the gut — a reminder of how the candidate feels about our community since Hurricane Maria.”
The group doesn’t confirm, but it already planned to reach 3 million people with the voting campaign.
“Now we’re making sure that Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania understand our position and our response,” said Miranda, whose grandmother died during a power outage on the island after Hurricane Maria. “As a Puerto Rican, I feel a responsibility to send our response and reaction to all the people in our network.”
While the general consensus among Puerto Ricans interviewed was condemnation of the racist joke, the discrepancy largely hinged on whether or not Trump felt responsible for the comments.
Gardner Mojica, Gomez’s husband and a fellow Trump supporter, said he thinks “Trump had nothing to do with it” and said his candidate “doesn’t support racism and wouldn’t call Puerto Rico a garbage island.”
After Trump’s rally in Allentown, award-winning “Hamilton” creator Lynn Manuel-Miranda said Wednesday that she plans to celebrate Puerto Rican culture in Philadelphia to counter the island’s portrayal as trash.
Nicole Acevedo reported from New York, Suzanne Gamboa from San Antonio and George Solis from Allentown.