Trump calls Madison Square Garden rally a ‘love fest’; The Hill, October 29, 2024

 BRETT SAMUELS , The Hill; Trump calls Madison Square Garden rally a ‘love fest’

"Former President Trump on Tuesday described a Madison Square Garden rally that was marked by racist and sexist comments as a “love fest.”

“There was love in the room. The love in that room was breathtaking,” Trump said in remarks from his Mar-a-Lago estate.

“It was like a love fest. An absolute love fest,” he added, scoffing at critics who likened the rally to a 1939 Nazi event at the arena.

Trump did not address the backlash to comments made by other speakers at the New York City rally, including comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose joke comparing Puerto Rico to a “floating island of garbage” has caused a firestorm, including with some Latino voters."

Trump’s Puerto Rico fallout is ‘spreading like wildfire’ in Pennsylvania; Politico, October 28, 2024

MEREDITH LEE HILL, MIA MCCARTHY and HOLLY OTTERBEIN , Politico; Trump’s Puerto Rico fallout is ‘spreading like wildfire’ in Pennsylvania

"Donald Trump has a serious Puerto Rico problem — in Pennsylvania.

Many Puerto Rican voters in the state are furious about racist and demeaning comments delivered at a Trump rally. Some say their dismay is giving Kamala Harris a new opening to win over the state’s Latino voters, particularly nearly half a million Pennsylvanians of Puerto Rican descent.

Evidence of the backlash was immediate on Monday: A nonpartisan Puerto Rican group drafted a letter urging its members to oppose Trump on election day. Other Puerto Rican voters were lighting up WhatsApp chats with reactions to the vulgar display and raising it in morning conversations at their bodegas. Some are planning to protest Trump’s rally Tuesday in Allentown, a majority-Latino city with one of the largest Puerto Rican populations in the state.

And the arena Trump is speaking at is located in the middle of the city’s Puerto Rican neighborhood.

“It’s spreading like wildfire through the community,” said Norberto Dominguez, a precinct captain with the local Democratic party in Allentown, who noted his own family is half Republican and half Democratic voters.

“It’s not the smartest thing to do, to insult people — a large group of voters here in a swing state — and then go to their home asking for votes,” Dominguez said.

The timing couldn’t be worse for Trump."

Trump Team Fears Damage From Racist Rally Remarks; The New York Times, October 28, 2024

Maggie HabermanJonathan Swan and Michael Gold, The New York Times; Trump Team Fears Damage From Racist Rally Remarks

"Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Mr. Trump’s running mate, dismissed any concerns. “Maybe it’s a stupid, racist joke, as you said,” he told reporters on Monday. “Maybe it’s not. I haven’t seen it.” But, he added, “we have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America.”

This Is Trump’s Message: At his Madison Square Garden rally, Trump’s argument was hate and fear.; The Atlantic, October 28, 2024

David A. Graham, The Atlantic; This Is Trump’s Message

At his Madison Square Garden rally, Trump’s argument was hate and fear.

"We might as well start with the lowlight of last night’s Trump campaign rally at Madison Square Garden. That would be Tony Hinchcliffe, a podcaster who’s part of Joe Rogan’s circle, and who was the evening’s first speaker.

“These Latinos, they love making babies too. Just know that. They do. They do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside,” he joked. “Just like they did to our country.” A minute later: “I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah, I think it’s called Puerto Rico.” It took a few more minutes before he got to the joke about Black people loving watermelons. Novel, edgy stuff—for a minstrel show in 1874.

Other speakers were only somewhat better. A childhood pal of Donald Trump’s called Vice President Kamala Harris “the anti-Christ” and “the devil.” The radio host Sid Rosenberg called her husband, Doug Emhoff, “a crappy Jew.” Tucker Carlson had a riff about Harris vying to be “the first Samoan-Malaysian, low-IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president.”"

US politicians, celebrities blast Trump-allied comedian for calling Puerto Rico 'garbage'; Reuters, October 28, 2024

Gram Slattery,  Helen Coster and Alexandra Ulmer, Reuters; US politicians, celebrities blast Trump-allied comedian for calling Puerto Rico 'garbage'

"Ed Rosa, 60, a New York resident whose parents were born in Puerto Rico and who attended a Trump rally in May, said he had been planning to vote for Trump, but will now sit the election out after Hinchcliffe's comments. He has removed the Trump campaign signs he had placed in the windows and yard of his North Bronx home.

"It wasn't funny at all," said Rosa. "I really believe it was racist. And I was a very strong supporter of Trump until yesterday."

Americans of Puerto Rican origin or ancestry are an important demographic in some of the competitive swing states that will likely decide the winner of the Nov. 5 election, including Pennsylvania. Both candidates are fighting for the Latino vote, which has trended more Republican in recent years but still leans Democratic.

In a video posted on X on Sunday, Harris reacted directly to Hinchcliffe's comments saying, "Puerto Rico is home to some of the most talented, innovative and ambitious people in our nation.""

Trump at the Garden: A Closing Carnival of Grievances, Misogyny and Racism; The New York Times, October 27, 2024

Shane Goldmacher, Maggie Haberman and Michael Gold , The New York Times; Trump at the Garden: A Closing Carnival of Grievances, Misogyny and Racism

"Later, the television host Phil McGraw, known as Dr. Phil, lectured the crowd on why Mr. Trump did not fit the definition of “a bully” because a bully requires “an imbalance of power,” seeming to ignore the fact that Mr. Trump has enormous power as a billionaire and former president...

David Rem, a childhood friend of Mr. Trump, called Ms. Harris “the devil.” Grant Cardone, a businessman, declared that the sitting vice president had “pimp handlers.” Sid Rosenberg denounced Hillary Clinton as a “sick son of a bitch” for linking the Trump rally and a pro-Nazi event at the arena of the same name decades ago.

Mr. Rosenberg called the entire Democratic Party “a bunch of degenerates, lowlives, Jew-haters and lowlives. Every one of them.”

When the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made his remark about Puerto Rico, there were groans from many in the audience.

On the same afternoon, Ms. Harris was in Philadelphia, courting Pennsylvania’s significant Latino population and stopping by Freddy & Tony’s, a Puerto Rican restaurant.

“Timing is everything,” David Plouffe, a top Harris adviser, wrote on X, posting clips of the two side-by-side.

In his White House bid, Mr. Trump has banked on winning uncommon shares of Black and Latino voters, in part by leaning into culture wars that split the Democratic Party."

Their Ugliest Foot Forward; The Bulwark, October 28, 2024

William Kristol, The Bulwark; Their Ugliest Foot Forward

"It was quite the hate fest the Trump campaign put on last night at Madison Square Garden...

Leading Trumpist thinker Tucker Carlson weighed in later, explaining there was no way “a Samoan Malaysian low-IQ” candidate like Kamala Harris could win 85 million votes. (That’s about the number of votes Harris is likely to get, which—in the event she wins—Carlson and the Trump campaign will spend the next two months insisting was impossible as they try to overturn the results.)

Trump himself didn’t shy away from demagogic incitement, especially as you’d expect against dark-skinned immigrants. “A lot of people are coming from the Congo prisons,” he declared on stage. But he was also happy to attack Americans of any color or national origin who oppose his campaign: “They are indeed the enemy from within,” and “the most sinister and corrupt forces on earth.”

This was the grand finale of the Trump campaign, personally insisted upon by him, paid for and produced by his campaign. This wasn’t Trump appearing at an event sponsored by a wacky local party or a goofy affiliated group, where the crazed speakers were locally produced farm-to-table types. This was 100 percent Grade-A Trumpism. This is what they wanted people to see.

Last night, at Madison Square Garden, they presented to us Donald Trump’s vision for America...

It is therefore tempting to avert our eyes from the ugly spectacle that was imposed on us at the Garden last night. But looking away won’t cut it. The only way to get beyond Trumpism is to defeat it."

Trump Campaign Scrambles to Disavow Racist MSG Rally Joke; The Daily Beast, October 28, 2024

Matt Wilstein, The Daily Beast; Trump Campaign Scrambles to Disavow Racist MSG Rally Joke

[Kip Currier: We must not allow ourselves to be gaslit and 1984'ed by Orwellian authoritarians who tell us to not believe what we see with our own eyes and hear with our own ears, to not discern what we understand with our own minds. The kinds of rhetoric that the Trump campaign systemically espouses, endorses, enables, turns a blind eye to, and in coded conduct and language repeatedly communicates are un-American, undemocratic, and contrary to the teachings, beliefs, and ideals of all major religions.

Reject hate.

Reject violence.

Reject divisiveness.

We are called to embrace love of our neighbor, to be kind and compassionate to one another.]

[Excerpt]

"In response to the massive backlash to Hinchcliffe’s comments, which also included a racist trope about Black people “carving watermelon” for Halloween, Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez told CNN political reporter Kate Sullivan, “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” Like the rest of the speakers who took the stage before Trump, Hinchcliffe’s remarks were pre-loaded into a teleprompter, indicating that they would likely have been vetted by the campaign in advance."

Trump loyalists spew racist, vulgar attacks at Harris and Democrats at New York City rally; CNN, October 27, 2024

Gregory Krieg , CNN; Trump loyalists spew racist, vulgar attacks at Harris and Democrats at New York City rally

"Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday began with a series of profane attacks on Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, other Democratic leaders, Puerto Rico and migrants sheltering in the city.

Local Trump loyalists, who made up many of the event’s speakers’ list ahead of the former president, took the opportunity to spew familiar grievances at some of the former president’s favorite targets. One failed Republican House candidate, for example, labeled Harris “the antichrist.”

The rally began with Tony Hinchcliffe, a comedian and podcast host, assailing Puerto Rico – in the city that’s home to the largest Puerto Rican population on the US mainland. About 500,000 Puerto Ricans also live in battleground Pennsylvania, where Harris campaigned on Sunday.

“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,” he said. “I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”"