New Jersey Reacts To ‘Racist’ Comments During NYC Trump Rally

NEW JERSEY — Several elected officials from New Jersey – including the state’s Legislative Latino Caucus – are bashing a speaker who made “racist” and “repugnant” remarks at a recent campaign rally for Donald Trump in New York City.

“There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now … I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” comedian Tony Hinchcliffe said during Sunday’s campaign rally at Madison Square Garden.

This comment – fired off after Hinchcliffe opened the event – accompanied other racially charged jokes that Kamala Harris’ camp has called a “vile, racist tirade.” Hinchcliffe quipped that Latinos “love making babies” and said they “come inside ... just like they did to our country.” It wasn’t only Latinos that Hinchcliffe targeted during his controversial set, which only saw scattered laughter from the crowd. The comedian made other jokes about Black people carving watermelons instead of pumpkins for Halloween, and played on stereotypes of Palestinians being violent and Jewish people being cheap in a joke that used a metaphor of a rock-paper-scissors contest for the Israel-Palestine war.

Hinchcliffe’s comments aren’t the only ones that have seen blowback. Nearly 30 speakers took the stage on Sunday, lobbing racist jokes about Black Americans and misogynistic attacks against Trump’s female political adversaries.

In the wake of the rally, several New Jersey politicians decried Hinchcliffe’s remarks – joining a rising chorus of Puerto Ricans across the nation.

Members of New Jersey’s Legislative Latino Caucus put out the following joint statement:

“The disgusting, despicable and racist remarks targeting Puerto Ricans and others made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at the New York campaign rally for Donald Trump are unacceptable at a campaign event or any other public forum. As American citizens, Puerto Ricans have served this country with honor and dignity for several decades, have given their lives on foreign fields and have long strived towards the American Dream, paying their taxes and exercising their right to vote. Any attempt to have these contributions tarnished by the repugnant remarks made by a comedian in an attempt to win votes is beyond abhorrent; it goes against everything America stands for.”

New Jersey Senate President Nick Scutari criticized the “hate-filled sentiments” that Hinchcliffe and other speakers made at the Trump rally, calling them “deplorable” and praising the contributions that Puerto Ricans have made to the United States.

“There are no excuses for spreading this type of hate-filled rhetoric and it has no place in any public discourse,” Scutari said. “We are a better country than what was heard from this so-called rally.”

“Statements like what we heard last night from that stage are abhorrent and an affront to American values,” New Jersey Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin said.

“This dangerous, dehumanizing rhetoric must be denounced by all who hold those values dear,” he added.

Assemblywoman Annette Quijano said it is “infuriating to witness such blatant racism.”

“It’s time for all of us—especially those in positions of power—to call out these acts for what they are: a cowardly attempt to divide us,” Quijano said.

New Jersey Assemblywoman Alixon Collazos-Gill made a statement on the Assembly floor on Monday, calling for other Latino residents to rally to take a stand against the “hateful remarks” made about Puerto Rico this week (article continues below video).

It isn’t just Democrats who are decrying the speeches made during Sunday’s rally.

Puerto Rico’s Republican Party chair said that he would withhold his support for Trump’s campaign unless the former president personally apologized for the racist remarks, The New York Times reported.

Another Republican, Florida Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, said she was “disgusted” by Hinchcliffe's racist comment, adding that it “does not reflect GOP values.”

Hinchcliffe's reaction to the fallout? “These people have no sense of humor,” he posted on X.

Controversy has since broken out about who approved the speeches, and how speakers like Hinchcliffe were allowed to go off the rails.

The Trump campaign has released a statement seeking to distance itself from Hinchcliffe’s controversial remarks, with a senior campaign advisor telling Fox News Digital that “this joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”

However, Trump has previously come under fire for making similar comments that some have labeled as racist, infamously calling several nations in Africa, Haiti and El Salvador “sh**hole countries” in 2018.

It’s a track record – and coincidence – that can’t be ignored, according to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, whose constituency includes a sizable Puerto Rican presence.

“Tony Hinchcliffe’s statements at the Trump campaign rally held this weekend in Manhattan, directly across the Hudson from our multicultural haven of Newark, were in perfect keeping with the candidate’s contempt for Americans he has branded as ‘the enemy from within,’” Baraka said.

“Like Trump, he desecrated Puerto Ricans, and all Latinos, with outrageously vile malevolence,” the mayor said.

Baraka continued:

“The selection of Hinchcliffe as a headliner at the event was a deliberate choice, as even a cursory scan of his social media posts indicates the racist loathing and venomous hostility of a white supremacist. There is no excuse for Hinchcliffe’s inclusion in the program, just as there should be no harbor anywhere in the civilized world for Trump himself, whose tyrannical rhetoric whipped the crowd into the now-expected ‘Send them back!’ chant. As mayor of Newark, a city with a large Puerto Rican population, I am compelled to speak up for them, and all Latinos, who work tirelessly for the betterment of their families and communities, who contribute to every aspect of our society – from government and academics to industry, commerce and the arts – and who fight and die in defense of America and our democracy.”

“Trump had the audacity to call the defamatory Madison Square Garden event his homecoming, but make no mistake about it: There is no welcome mat for him, or any racist, here in Newark,” Baraka insisted.

TRUMP, VANCE, HAITI AND NEW JERSEY

Last weekend’s controversial Trump rally came just weeks after his campaign stirred up another series of accusations about racist rhetoric.

In September, the former president made a now-infamous (and debunked) claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating the pets of local residents. Local officials have roundly dismissed the rumors, with no evidence supporting the claim that dogs and cats are being consumed in Springfield. Ohio governor Mike DeWine – a Republican – has bluntly called the rumor “a piece of garbage that was simply not true.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s vice-presidential candidate, Vance – who helped to spark the controversy with a social media post a day before the debate – has acknowledged that it’s possible that “all of these rumors will turn out to be false.”

A wave of outraged advocates and Haitian residents across the nation have been decrying the pair’s comments as “racist” – including in Essex County, which is home to one of the highest percentages of Haitian immigrants and Haitian-Americans in New Jersey.

• See Related: ‘They’re Eating Pets’: NJ Haitians Protest False Rumors In Essex County
• See Related: Outrage In New Jersey Over ‘Racist’ Claims From Trump, Vance
• See Related: NJ Bills Aim To Boost Haitian Migrants In Wake Of ‘Hate-Filled’ Rumors

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