Former President Donald Trump’s stacked-up Madison Square Garden rally opened to a roaring response of about 20,000 supporters 9 days before Election Day. Despite recording history at the iconic NYC venue, MAGA comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s problematic opening remarks invited blazing fury on the Internet on Sunday, October 27.
The “Kill Tony” podcast host reportedly took aim at Latinos and Puerto Rico while addressing the capacity crowd. Introducing the Republican party as the “party with a good sense of humour,” he began, “I welcome migrants to the United States with open arms and by open arms, I mean like this,” while signalling “no” with his hand gestures.
He went on, “It’s wild and these Latinos love making babies too, just know that — they don’t do that. They come inside, just like they did to our country. Republicans are the party with a good sense of humour.”
The flaming blowback heightened with his joke about Puerto Rico. “There’s a lot going on. There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
Elsewhere during his speech, the comedian compared the Democratic Party to “a Diddy party.” He also name-dropped NFL star Travis Kelce while addressing the crowd and listed celebrity-heavy endorsements backing Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I think Travis Kelce might be the next OJ Simpson,” he said at one point. “Every day, the Democrat Party looks more like a Diddy Party!” Hinchcliffe quipped, inviting awkward laughs at the rally venue. “Oh okay, I see what you guys want.” The Trump rally speaker also joked about Black people carving watermelons for Halloween.
Tony Hinchcliffe’s offensive remarks came to the forefront on the same day Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris courted the Puerto Rican population in Philadelphia. Prior to that, she also took aim at the Republican candidate in a video message to Puerto Rican voters, eventually praised by Latin superstar Bad Bunny. The widely shared video captured her flaming her Republican rival, as she said, “I will never forget what Donald Trump did and what he did not do when Puerto Rico needed a caring and a competent leader.”
Officials denounce MAGA comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s inflammatory speech
The official ‘Kamala HQ’ X/Twitter page posted a split-screen comparison of Hinchcliffe and the vice president’s Puerto Rico-focussed commentaries. Meanwhile, Democratic vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz, who was engaged in a Twitch gaming session with Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, slammed the comedian as an “a**hole.”
Ridiculing the MAGA speaker, Walz fumed, “When you have some a-hole calling Puerto Rico ‘floating garbage,’ know that that’s what they think about you. It’s what they think about anyone who makes less money than them… I want every Puerto Rican in Philadelphia and Reading and across the country to see this clip.”
Other Democrats also joined Walz in condemning the Comedy Central figure’s comments on Sunday.
AOC shared more thoughts on her X handle: “You’re opening for Trump by calling Puerto Rico a floating pile of garbage. 4,000+ Puerto Ricans died under him.
This isn’t the comedy store. You’re using your set to boost neo-Nazis like MTG & stripping women’s rights to the Stone Age. Your “sense of humour” doesn’t change that.”
She added in a follow-up tweet, “And before people try to act like this is some PC overly sensitive nonsense, I’ve been to Kill Tony shows. I’m from the Bronx. I don’t give a sh*t about crude humour.
But don’t pretend that your support for Trump is a joke. Own it. You doing a set to support him. That’s a choice.”
“As a Puerto Rican, I am tempted to call Hinchcliffe racist garbage but doing so would be an insult to garbage. When casting their ballots at the voting booth, Latinos should never forget the racism that Donald Trump seems all too willing to platform,” said Rep Ritchie Torres.
A Harris campaign spokesman, Kevin Munoz, added in a statement, “Quite a split screen,” labelling the off-coloured remarks “no surprise.” The campaign also pushed a new release titled, “All the Crazy Things (So Far) at Trump’s ‘Closing Argument’ Madison Square Garden Rally.”
Additionally, Angel Citron, the Chairman of the Republican Party of Puerto Rico, bashed the comedian’s ill-fitted racist tirade at the rally as “unfortunate, ignorant and entirely reprehensible.”
More reactions + Tony Hinchcliffe defends his choice of words
Netizens on the Elon Musk-led microblogging site poured out mixed reactions to the speech. While some dared the “Kill Tony “ podcast host to say such off-putting things in Puerto Rico, others labelled people voting for Trump as racists. Yet some others also felt the need to point out that “he’s a comedian making a joke,” and saw no issues with his remarks.
Hinchcliffe had more words to share on X as he brushed off the backlash and counter-reacting to it. “These people have no sense of humour. Wild that a vice presidential candidate would take time out of his “busy schedule” to analyze a joke taken out of context to make it seem racist. I love Puerto Rico and vacation there. I made fun of everyone…watch the whole set. I’m a comedian Tim…might be time to change your tampon,” he wrote on X.
