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Monday, October 28, 2024
Trump doesn't mention Puerto Rico/Latino insults during Mar-a-Lago speech. (Antonio Fins, Palm Beach Post, October 29, 2024)
DJT's bigotry fest at Madison Square Garden -- ipse dixit, they can't fix it. From Palm Beach Post:
Trump doesn't mention Puerto Rico/Latino insults during Mar-a-Lago speech
On Tuesday, a week before Election Day, the 2024 GOP presidential nominee talked from his Mar-a-Lago resort and residence.
PALM BEACH — It turns out the long-anticipated October surprise hit on Donald Trump were self-inflicted, vulgar jokes about Latinos, Puerto Ricans and others uttered by comedians and speakers at a Make America Great Again rally on Sunday in Manhattan.
The comments at the packed-house event at Madison Square Garden sparked a firestorm of anger, as well as denunciations and disavowals by even Republicans in Trump's home state and beyond. But on Tuesday, a week before Election Day, Trump spoke at his Mar-a-Lago club and ignored the controversy.
In his nearly hour-long remarks, the 2024 GOP presidential nominee meandered through talking points that are staples of his rally and stump speeches, from border security to the Afghanistan withdrawal to the economy. He even sought to turn the tables on his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, saying the Democratic nominee is spearheading a "campaign of hate, absolute hate."
It was not until his closing comments, more than 50 minutes into the event, that he raised the rally in New York City saying he couldn't believe "the love in that room."
"I don't think anybody has ever seen anything like what happened the other night at Madison Square Garden," he said to cheers. He made no reference to the offensive comments by some of the speakers that evening. "Politicians that have been doing this for a long time, 30, 40 years, said there's never been an event so beautiful. It was like a lovefest."
Trump did not take questions from the media invited to Mar-a-Lago for the address. The ballroom where the speech was held included several hundred people in attendance, including Mar-a-Lago members, campaign supporters and local GOP officials and candidates. FOX News host Sean Hannity, who has a property in Palm Beach, campaign aide Corey Lewandowski and Trump attorney Alina Haba were among those seen in attendance.
The speech came two days after some speakers at the New York City rally risked undermining the former president's outreach and potential gains with Hispanic voters, who make up about 15% of the national electorate.
The insulting comments offered the Harris-Walz ticket, and Democrats in Trump's home state, an opening they immediately pounced on as a potential game-changer in a presidential contest that polls have shown is historically close.
The controversy also distracted from the main objective of Sunday evening's rally — to kick off Trump's closing argument to U.S. voters by emphasizing his plans to cut inflation and secure the border.
What offensive comments did the comedian, others make at Trump's Manhattan MAGA rally?
At the Madison Square Garden rally hosted by Trump and his campaign on Sunday, Oct. 27, comic Tony Hinchcliffe said "there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico."
Hinchcliffe, who hosts the comedy podcast Kill Tony, also played on sexual tropes about Hispanics with a profane comment.
The offensive comments instantaneously rifled through social media. Just as quickly, Puerto Rican mega music stars Bad Bunny and Jennifer Lopez announced on their social media accounts — of which they have millions of followers — that they were endorsing Harris' campaign.
Florida Republican U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott as well as GOP Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar of Miami denounced the jokes. Scott and Salazar are in competitive re-election contests.
Even the archbishop of San Juan de Puerto Rico, in an open letter to Trump, asked him to apologize, according to The Hill.
Democrats: Jokes spoke quiet part out loud about MAGA attitude toward Latinos
During a call Monday morning, Rolando Barrero of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida, called the remarks a "disgusting" slight of Puerto Ricans on the island and the U.S. mainland.
"This language is not just derogatory," he said, "it's dehumanizing and utterly unacceptable to anyone who is aspiring to lead our country."
Barrero noted that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and its inhabitants are American citizens by birth. He also accused the Trump campaign of knowingly permitting Hinchcliffe's comments.
"These are U.S. citizens he is talking about," Barrero said. "All those jokes were premeditated. They were looked at. They were vetted and they were purposely presented, and that is disgusting."
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, the Democratic nominee seeking to unseat Scott, said the comments were part and parcel of the ugly rhetoric Trump has employed against immigrants who have entered the U.S. via the southern border with Mexico.
Mucarsel-Powell said the toxic statements would be followed up with what she called xenophobic policies if Trump should regain the White House. The former Miami area Democratic congresswoman recalled the 2018 family separation policy the Trump administration implemented at the border.
"I saw firsthand the thousands of children not only being separated but being detained and not reunited with their families," she said. "This is exactly the type of policy that they will implement again."
U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, an Orlando Democrat, called on Puerto Rican voters to punish Trump and his allies for present and past slights, from the comic's "despicable" jokes to Trump's 2017 paper towel toss after Hurricane Maria devastated the Caribbean island.
Soto noted there are 1.2 million Puerto Ricans in Florida, 500,000 in swing state Pennsylvania and a decisive 50,000 in Georgia and North Carolina.
"We have eight days left for our community to respond by voting, voting, voting," Soto said. "That is the only way."
Trump is scheduled to speak at a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania on Tuesday night. Even that city's mayor called out Trump.
“I couldn’t believe what I heard from that Trump rally. Seeing that type of hatred on full display not only angered me, but deepened my resolve to do everything I can to make sure that he never sits in the Oval Office again,” said Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk. More than half of Allentown’s residents are Latino, and many are of Puerto Rican descent. Tuerk, a Democrat who is of Cuban descent, is the city’s first Latino mayor.
Will jokes undo Trump, MAGA inroads into Latino electorate?
The debacle in Madison Square Garden threatens to undo significant and potentially decisive inroads Trump has made in the Latino electorate, especially younger males.
In 2020, President Joe Biden captured about 59% of Latino votes. But recent polls show Trump closing the margin.
A New York Times/Sienna College voter survey released earlier this month showed Harris with just 52% support among the country's 36 million Hispanic voters and Trump logging 40%. A poll released Oct. 24 by Florida International University also found Trump capturing 68% of Cuban-American voters.
One entry point for Trump has been among young Latino males and one channel has been their shared passion for mixed martial arts prizefighting, of which Trump is an ardent fan who has gained the backing of the sport's Hispanic stars.
Tito Ortiz, a former Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter of Mexican descent who now is a businessman in Southern California, said Trump has "exposed what's really happening and what's going on in this country" and why Democrats do not offer Hispanics in America a true path to the American Dream.
"In the Latino values that we have it is family faith and freedom," said Ortiz during a film premiere at Mar-a-Lago on Oct. 23. "We come here for freedom. We love our family and we love God and our faith."
Ortiz said he came from a family within the Democratic Party ranks, but he has been fully supporting Trump since 2016.
"I'm all in," said the former mixed martial arts heavyweight champion. "Being a Latino kid myself, coming from nothing, coming from the Democratic Party, coming from the kid that came from government cheese, government powdered milk, to make the American Dream possible for myself by talking about the truth."
Trump segued from topic to topic during Mar-a-Lago talk
What exactly Trump hoped to achieve with his Tuesday event in Palm Beach was not clear.
The former president did not offer a focused or cohesive presentation. Instead, he bounced from topic to topic in a seeming stream of consciousness — Trump calls it the "weave," critics call it rambling — without offering detailed explanations or policy prescriptions.
He offered no criticism of the offensive comments at the rally, nor did he disavow or distance himself from them.
Trump did say he would seek to create a fund that would provide restitution to victims of crimes committed by undocumented people that the government would finance from seizing drug dealer assets. But he did not explain how this would be achieved.
He introduced Alexis Nungaray, the mother of a 12-year-old girl who Texas police allege was murdered this summer by two Venezuelan nationals U.S. authorities say entered the country illegally.
"Homeland Security did not do their job, Health and Human Services did not do their job. The Biden-Harris administration did not do their job," Nungaray said. "If they would have done their job they would have made one phone call to El Salvador and my daughter would still be alive today."
Trump then stated that more than 300,000 children were unaccounted for across the country, many potentially dead or being abused as sex slaves, he claimed, but gave no details or explanation of what he was referring to.
Inexplicably, after dropping that bombshell, and without elaboration, he turned the microphone over to the owner of a West Palm Beach chain of dry cleaning stores. The businessman spoke about the difficulties he is encountering in attempting to expand his enterprise in the current economy.
Trump then segued to tariffs, mentioned the "China virus," his term for the coronavirus pandemic, how he threatened a Taliban leader into refraining from attacking U.S. troops, cutting Social Security taxes, the firing of 9,000 Veterans Administration personnel he deemed "sadists" and uncaring, transgender athletes and other issues.
He said a second White House term would set the country on a path to peace and prosperity.
"We're going to turn our country around," he said.
Many Puerto Rican people still voting for Trump after his cronies got up there and made a mockery out of Puerto Rico. They've sold out everything and jumped on the Trump clown car.
Antonio FinsPalm Beach Post
Many Puerto Rican people still voting for Trump after his cronies got up there and made a mockery out of Puerto Rico. They've sold out everything and jumped on the Trump clown car.
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