Trump says his New York rally marked by crude and racist slurs was ‘an absolute love fest’ – Boston News, Weather, Sports

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Some allies have called on him to apologize for racist comments made by speakers at his weekend rally. Donald Trump On Tuesday, he took the opposite approach, saying he was “honored to be involved” in such an event and calling the scene a “love fest,” the same term he used to describe the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump gathered supporters and reporters to his Mar-a-Lago resort two days after mass rally at Madison Square Garden contained a number of rude remarks from various speakers, including the statement comedian Tony Hinchcliffe in which he joked that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage.” Some of Trump’s top Republican allies condemned the remarks, and his campaign took the rare step of publicly distancing itself from Hinchcliffe’s joke but not the other comments.

But given the chance to apologize at multiple events and in interviews on Tuesday, Trump leaned in instead. Speaking from his Florida resort, he said “there has never been such a great event” as his rally Sunday in his hometown of New York.

“Love is in this room. It was exciting,” he said. “It was like a love celebration, a real love celebration. And it was an honor to be a part of it.”

On Tuesday night, he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he didn’t know anything about Hinchcliffe, but said, “I can’t imagine it’s a big deal.” However, he later agreed that “he probably shouldn’t have been there.”

Just a week before Election DaySome Trump allies expressed dismay that the rally, which was supposed to highlight the Republican presidential nominee’s final message in grand New York style, instead served as a distraction and even responsibilityConsidering electoral significance of Puerto Ricans who live in Pennsylvania and other key swing states.

“This is not the time to criticize Puerto Rico or Latinos,” former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who challenged and then endorsed Trump for the GOP presidential nomination, told Fox News.

Trump later held a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a city with a large Latino population, where he was joined by Puerto Rico’s shadow U.S. senator Zoraida Buxo and defended the former president’s record.

“We need this man to be our commander in chief,” said Buxo, who cannot vote in the Senate because Puerto Rico is not a state. “He will make us feel safe and protect us.”

Still, there was anger in Allentown. Yvette Figueroa, 61, stood near the rally with a trash can labeled “Trash Trump.”

She said of the insult and Trump: “The person who said it was vetted by him. So this is what he did, which means he must take responsibility for what he said. Now it’s too late to say “sorry.” I don’t want an apology, I want justice, and justice will come on November 5th.”

The fallout from the Madison Square Garden event could highlight voters’ concerns about Trump’s rhetoric and his penchant for controversy in the final stretch as both campaigns battle for votes. Speakers at the rally also made racist comments about Latinos, blacks, Jews and Palestinians, as well as sexist slurs about Trump’s Democratic rival, the vice president. Kamala Harrisand former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In an interview with ABC News earlier Tuesday, Trump said he did not know Hinchcliffe but did not condemn his comments.

“I don’t know him. Someone put it there. I don’t know who he is,” Trump said, according to the network, insisting he had not heard Hinchcliffe’s comments. When asked what he thought of them, Trump “did not take the opportunity to condemn them, repeating that he had not heard the comments,” ABC reported.

In an interview with Hannity, Trump said people were trying to make the comedian’s appearance a “big deal” even though it had “nothing to do with the party, nothing to do with us.”

Asked later in the interview whether he wished the comic book didn’t exist, Trump responded: “Yeah, I mean, I don’t know if it’s a big deal or not, but I don’t want anyone making nasty or stupid jokes. ” He added: “He probably shouldn’t have been there, yeah.”

Later Tuesday, President Joe Biden, during a conference call hosted by the Latino advocacy group Voto Latino, denounced the comic’s joke and said, “The only trash I see out there are his supporters.” Later he tried to clarify my commentsaying he was referring to “hateful rhetoric towards Puerto Rico spewed by a Trump supporter.”

Comments from protesters at the Madison Square Garden rally sparked outrage among Puerto Rican leaders.

The archbishop of Puerto Rico called on Trump to disavow them, saying it was not enough for the campaign to say the joke did not reflect Trump’s views. The president of the Puerto Rican Republican Party called Hinchcliffe’s “poor attempt at comedy” “disgraceful, ignorant and completely reprehensible.”

In Pennsylvania, where Trump campaigned Tuesday night, the number of eligible Latino voters has nearly tripled since 2000. More than half of them are voters from Puerto Rico.

Angelo Ortega, a longtime Allentown resident and former Republican planning to vote for Harris, said he couldn’t believe what he was hearing about Trump’s rally.

“I don’t know if my jaw dropped or I was just so annoyed, angry. I didn’t know what to feel,” said Ortega, who was born in New York but whose father came from Puerto Rico. Ortega campaigned for Harris and said he knows of at least one Latino GOP voter planning to switch from Trump to Harris as a result of Hinchcliffe’s comments.

“They got it. They had it. They listened (to Trump) but said they thought it was like the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Ortega, a member of the advocacy group Make the Road PA.

Still, some Puerto Rican voters were unfazed. Mariselis Torres, 24, a waitress studying to be a radiologist, was waiting to attend the rally in Allentown and said she and her family laughed at Hinchcliffe’s joke.

“If you don’t understand humor, that’s what I’m saying: People are too soft these days,” said Torres, whose father is from the island.

Harris’ campaign released an ad that will air online in battleground states, targeting Puerto Rican voters and highlighting the comedian’s remarks.

At a roundtable outside Philadelphia on Tuesday afternoon, Trump received praise from former Puerto Rican occupational therapist Maribel Valdez. “Puerto Rico supports you, and Puerto Rico loves you,” Valdez told him.

Trump thanked her and recalled his administration’s efforts to help the island after the storms. “I think no president has ever done more for Puerto Rico than I have,” responded Trump, who delayed release billions of dollars to help repair years of hurricane damage in Puerto Rico just before the 2020 election.