At New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Donald Trump organized a rally that featured offensive and racist remarks, transforming what his team had called the occasion where he would make his parting remarks into a demonstration of what irritates his detractors.
A little more than a week before Election Day, speakers referred to Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris as “the devil,” dubbed Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” and claimed that the candidate for the first female Black president had started out as a prostitute.
“A floating island of trash is currently floating in the middle of the ocean; I’m not sure if you guys are aware of this. “I believe it’s called Puerto Rico,” said stand-up comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, whose set also included lewd and racist comments about Latinos, Jews and Black people, all key constituencies in the election just nine days away.
His joke was immediately criticized by Harris’ campaign as it competes with Trump to win over Puerto Rican communities in Pennsylvania and other swing states. Puerto Rican music superstar Bad Bunny backed Harris shortly after Hinchcliffe’s appearance.
The Trump campaign took a rare step of distancing itself from Hinchcliffe, a former White House official, during the Republican National Convention. However, other speakers made incendiary comments, questioning her mental stability and intelligence, as well as calling her “lazy,” long a racist trope used against Black people. The event was a surreal spectacle that included former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, politicians including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Reps. Byron Donalds and Elise Stefanik, and an artist who painted a picture of Trump hugging the Empire State Building.
Trump began by asking the same questions he’s asked at the start of every recent rally: “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” The crowd responded with a resounding “No!”. He then added a new proposal to his list of tax cuts aimed at winning over older adults and blue-collar workers: A tax credit for family caregivers. This comes after Harris has talked about the “sandwich generation” of adults caring for aging parents while raising their children at the same time. Harris has proposed federal funding to cover home care costs for older Americans.
Trump otherwise repeated familiar lines about foreign policy and immigration, calling for the death penalty for any migrant who kills a U.S. citizen and saying that the day he takes office, “The migrant invasion of our country ends.” As Trump’s remarks came up on an hour, some of the crowd began trickling out. Tech mogul Elon Musk, who spoke earlier and introduced Melania Trump, was a prominent part of Trump’s closing campaign message. The former president called Musk “a genius” and “special.”
Many of the speakers Sunday appeared on stage at the Republican National Convention. This time, the same speakers shouted and railed more against Democrats. Hogan, returning to the venue where he performed years ago as a professional wrestler, seemed to reprise his character, emerging wearing a giant red, orange, and yellow boa and violently waving a large American flag as he posed and danced. He spat on the stage during his speech, flexed his muscles repeatedly, and told the audience: “Trump is the only man that can fix this country today.”
Some Democrats, calling Trump a fascist, have compared his Sunday event to a pro-Nazi rally at the Garden in February 1939. Several speakers on Sunday ripped Hillary Clinton, the Democrat defeated by Trump eight years ago, for saying recently that Trump would be “reenacting” the 1939 event. Trump has denounced the four criminal indictments brought against him as politically motivated. He has ramped up his denunciations in recent weeks of “enemies from within,” naming domestic political rivals, and suggesting he would use the military to go after them. Harris, in turn, has referred to Trump as a fascist.
The arena was full hours before Trump was scheduled to speak. Outside the arena, the sidewalks were overflowing with Trump supporters in red “Make America Great Again” hats. There was a heavy security presence. Streets were blocked off and access to Penn Station was restricted. Philip D’Agostino, a longtime Trump backer from Queens, the borough where Trump grew up, said that it just goes to show ya that he has a bigger following of any man that has ever lived.
(AP)
