As clips of comedian Tony Hinchcliffe making racist jokes at Donald Trump’s rally in Madison Square Garden made the rounds on Sunday, Tim Walz and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described the speech as “terrifying, absolutely wild times.” The vice presidential candidate and congresswoman commented on the speech in real-time, with AOC insisting she wants “everyone in Philadelphia to see that clip.”
Part of Hinchcliffe’s speech included a racist jab at Puerto Rico. “I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now? Yeah, I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” he said.
Walz and Ocasio-Cortez, whose family is Puerto Rican, were appalled. “The thing that is so messed up — that I wish more people understood — is that the things that they do in Puerto Rico are a testing ground for the policies and the horrors that they wish to and that they do unveil in working-class communities across the United States,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“And I need people to understand that when they when you have some a-hole calling Puerto Rico floating garbage, know that that’s what they think about you,” she added. “That is, like, that’s just what they think about you. It’s what they think about anyone who makes less money than them.”
The pair also directly spoke to voters living in Philadelphia — which has the second-largest population of Puerto Ricans in the U.S. outside of New York — and Reading, Pennsylvania. “I want everyone in Philadelphia to see that clip,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“Like, what is trash is people actually just thinking of other human beings that way, are you actually for real?” she continued. “And the thing that gets me is that these people rely their entire lives, rely on working class people.”
Elsewhere in his speech, Hinchcliffe said, “And these Latinos, they love making babies too. Just know that. They do. They do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside. Just like they did to our country.”
Others also slammed Hinchcliffe’s comments. Rep. Ritchie Torres wrote on X, “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.”
Hincliffe hit back on social media, where he wrote, “These people have no sense of humor. 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.”
Elsewhere at Trump’s rally, David Rem called Kamala Harris the “antichrist” and Sid Rosenberg ranted about “f–king illegals” getting “whatever they want.”
After the rally, the Trump campaign distanced itself from Hinchcliffe’s speech by saying the joke about Puerto Rico “does not reflect the views of President Trump and the campaign.”
