Trump says his NY rally, filled with insults, “was a love fest”

Palm Beach, Florida, United States – Urged by some aides to apologize for racist comments made by speakers at his weekend rally, Donald Trump took another step forward, saying it was an “honor” to attend such an event and that the scene Described as a “festival of love”. ” That’s the word he used to describe the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Trump gathered supporters and reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate two days after a massive rally at Madison Square Garden that featured a series of lewd comments from multiple speakers, including a segment from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe In which he joked that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage.” Some of Trump’s Republican allies have condemned the comments, and his campaign has publicly distanced itself from Hinchcliffe’s joke, though not from other comments.

But when given the opportunity to apologize, at Mar-a-Lago and in an earlier interview with ABC, Trump said “there has never been such a beautiful event” as Sunday night’s rally in his hometown of New York.

“Make love in that room. “It was impressive,” he said. “It was like a love fest, a real love fest. And it was an honor for me to be included in it.”

A week before Election Day, some Trump allies have expressed concern that the rally, which was supposed to highlight the Republican presidential nominee’s closing message in New York in a grand manner, may have served as a distraction and even a shock. Has worked on the electoral importance of Puerto Ricans living in Pennsylvania and other disputed states.

Trump was scheduled to hold a rally Tuesday in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a city with a large Hispanic population, where he will meet with Puerto Rico’s shadow senator, according to a campaign official who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the formal event. Zoraida will be joining with Bakso. Announcement.

Bucos, who does not have a vote in the Senate because Puerto Rico is not a state, expressed his support for Trump on the social network X. He said Trump is the “strong leader” that Puerto Rico needs.

Trump’s rhetoric following the Madison Square Garden incident risks highlighting voters’ concerns about his penchant for controversy in the final stages of the presidential campaign. Speakers at the rally made racist comments about Latinos, African Americans, Jews and Palestinians, as well as gendered slurs against Trump’s Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

On Tuesday, Trump attempted to turn the page on the controversy and refocus attention on Harris, criticizing his opponent’s record on the border and the economy.

Trump, who did not answer questions at the event, accused Harris of running a “complete hate campaign” and claimed she “continues to talk about Hitler and the Nazis because their performance is terrible.”

In an interview with ABC News on Tuesday, Trump attempted to distance himself from Hinchcliffe but did not criticize what he said.

“I don’t know him, someone put him there. “I don’t know who he is,” Trump said, according to the network, while insisting he had not heard Hinchcliffe’s comments. But when asked what he thought of them, Trump “did not take the opportunity to dismiss them and reiterated that he had not heard the comments,” ABC reported.

The comments have sparked outrage among Puerto Rican leaders.

The Archbishop of Puerto Rico urged Trump to disavow them and said it was not enough for the campaign to say the joke did not reflect Trump’s views. The chairman of the Republican Party of Puerto Rico said that Hinchcliffe’s “poor attempt at comedy” was “shameful, ignorant and completely reprehensible”.

In Pennsylvania, where Trump planned to campaign on Tuesday, the population of Latino voters has tripled since 2000. More than half of them are Puerto Rican voters.

Longtime Allentown resident and former Republican Angelo Ortega, who plans to vote for Harris this time, said he can’t believe what he’s hearing about the Trump rally.

“I don’t know if my jaw was sore or I was just very irritated, angry. I didn’t know what to feel,” said Ortega, who was born in New York but whose father came from Puerto Rico. Ortega is campaigning for Harris and said he knows at least one Hispanic Republican voter who plans to switch from Trump to Harris as a result of Hinchcliffe’s comments.

“They are already fed up. They were listening to (Trump), but he said 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 Republican Puerto Ricans were shocked. Lydia Maldonado, who attended Trump’s event in Florida on Tuesday, said it was important to note that the former president was not the one who made the comments about Puerto Rico.

“He’s a comedian, and what does a comedian do for a living? Of grace and nonsense. The boy is a fool. He doesn’t know what Puerto Rico is, he doesn’t know our culture and he messed up. It’s called forgiving and forgetting,” said Maldonado, who is Puerto Rican.

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