Donald Trump said his Sunday rally in New York City was an “absolute love fest”, ignoring calls from both parties and personally apologizing after a comedian’s joke at the event caused widespread offense.
The Republican White House nominee said he was “honored to be a part of” the rally at Madison Square Garden, though he distanced himself from the stand-up comedian who during a routine event described Puerto Rico as a “trash island.”
Polls show that Trump is neck-and-neck with his Democratic rival, US Vice President Kamala Harris, just one week away from the November 5 election.
Both are vying for Latino voters in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, home to more than 470,000 Puerto Ricans.
Trump was campaigning Tuesday night in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a town with a large Latino population.
Some Puerto Ricans living in the United States expressed anger at Tony Hinchliffe’s daily routine. Some prominent Puerto Rican figures, including Trump allies, urged the Republican candidate to publicly disavow the joke.
Among them was Puerto Rico Republican Party Chairman Angel Cintron, who was quoted by the Associated Press as saying it was “shameful, ignorant and completely reprehensible.”
Trump distanced himself from Hinchcliffe in an interview with ABC News on Tuesday.
“I don’t know him, someone put him there. I don’t know who he is,” he said.
Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump insisted the rally was an “absolute love fest.”
“The love in that room. It was breathtaking,” he added.
Trump allies fired back at Democrats, accusing actor George Lopez of making an insensitive joke about Mexicans while speaking at a Kamala Harris rally in Arizona over the weekend.
Also over the weekend, Harris unveiled a new policy platform for Puerto Rico, promising to grow the economy and improve disaster relief efforts.
She accused Trump of “abandoning and insulting” the island during Hurricane Maria in 2017.
The Trump campaign countered that his administration rebuilt the U.S. territory’s infrastructure after the storm and provided billions of dollars in grant funding to the islands.
On Tuesday, at another event at Drexel Mountain in Pennsylvania, Trump told a Puerto Rican voter that his administration had “helped you weather a lot of bad storms.”
“I don’t think any president has done more for Puerto Rico than I have,” he said.
Seeking to shake off the controversy, the Republican attacked Harris on the border and inflation, saying “on issue after issue, she’s broken it” and “I’m going to fix it, and I’m going to fix it real fast.” .
