(Bloomberg) -- Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny expressed support for Vice President Kamala Harris after a speaker at Donald Trump’s rally in New York called the US territory a “floating island of garbage.”
The remark by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, one of a long lineup of featured speakers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, also drew a backlash from Republican lawmakers in Florida, including Senator Rick Scott and Miami-area Representative Maria Elvira Salazar.
Danielle Alvarez, a Trump adviser, distanced the campaign from the joke, saying it “does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
The divisive remark was made to a packed arena at Madison Square Garden with tens of thousands of Trump supporters. The Republican nominee’s team branded Sunday’s rally as one of the climactic events of what has been an at-times calamitous presidential campaign punctuated by assassination attempts on the former president’s life and Harris’ surprise entrance into the race.
Early voting has already kicked off across many US states. New York is a Democratic bastion with a very low likelihood of tipping Republican for the first time since 1984. The election, little over a week away, is expected to be extraordinarily close, making it imperative for the respective campaign’s to avoid costly mistakes that could sway voters.
The racist joke made at Puerto Ricans’ expense targets the very same minority voters that Trump has sought to court. The Trump and Harris campaigns have jockeyed for support among Latino voters, a key voting bloc in the election. Polls have shown Trump making inroads with a community that has historically voted more heavily Democratic.
Harris’ campaign was quick to seize on the contrast to the Democratic candidate’s campaign events earlier on Sunday in Philadelphia, which included a stop at a Puerto Rican restaurant as part of her push to mobilize Black and Latino voters.
“Quite a split screen,” Harris campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said in a statement.
Harris also presented a blueprint for how she’d promote economic development on the island if elected president.
Singer and actress Jennifer Lopez, who’s of Puerto Rican descent, joined Bad Bunny — real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — in backing Harris’ plan Sunday evening.
Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin, who had previously announced his support for Harris, posted a clip from the rally with a caption in Spanish saying “This is what they think of us.”
--With assistance from Derek Wallbank.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
