(The Hill) – A Trump campaign adviser sought to distance the former president and his operation from a racist joke about Puerto Rico delivered by a speaker at former President Trump's New York City rally on Sunday amid swift backlash from both sides of the aisle.
Hours before Trump took the podium, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe delivered a set that included inflammatory attacks on Puerto Ricans.
“There’s a lot going on. Like, I don’t know if you know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” Hinchcliffe said, eliciting mixed reactions from the crowd.
Hinchcliffe, who hosts the "Kill Tony" podcast, made other jokes about Latinos, as well as Jews and Black men, but it was his comments about Puerto Rico that generated the most attention and backlash.
"This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign," senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said in a statement.
Other Trump allies also pushed back against Hinchcliffe's comments about Puerto Rico.
"I understand that his K*ll Tony podcast is wildly popular, but I thought he was unfunny and unfortunately offended many of our friends from Puerto Rico," David Urban, who has advised Trump on strategy in Pennsylvania, posted on the social platform X.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), a Trump ally who is up for reelection this year, said the joke was "not funny and it's not true."
Harris campaign aides further noted that Hinchcliffe’s remarks came as Vice President Harris was in Philadelphia speaking at a Puerto Rican restaurant, where she detailed her plans to assist the island and bolster its electrical grid.
A short time later, Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny shared a clip of Harris's plans to support Puerto Rico to his 45 million Instagram followers.
Others pointed out that hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans live in Pennsylvania, which is shaping up to be one of the most critical battlegrounds on Election Day.
“Who wants to tell these guys there are ~ HALF A MILLION Puerto Ricans living in Battleground PA, whose votes are up for grabs?” wrote Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Trump White House official who is an outspoken critic of the former president, on X.
