WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats stepped up their attacks on Donald Trump on Monday, a day after a comedian opening a rally for the former president called Puerto Rico a “floating island of trash,” a comment that drew widespread condemnation and the emerging Power highlighted a key Latino group in the swing state of Pennsylvania.
Vice President Kamala Harris described Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday as “livelier than usual” and said he was “stoking the fuel of hate” before she flew to Michigan for a campaign event. President Joe Biden called the rally “just embarrassing.” In a occasional move, Trump’s campaign slow Sunday distanced itself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s comments about Puerto Rico.
“The garbage he talked about taints our elections and confirms how little Donald Trump cares specifically about Latinos and our Puerto Rican community,” Reading Mayor Eddie Moran said at a news conference with other Puerto Rican officials.
With just over a week to go before Election Day, the fallout underscores the importance of Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes and last-minute efforts to attract growing numbers of Hispanic voters, mostly from Puerto Rico, who have settled in cities west and north of Philadelphia .
Fernando Tormos-Aponte, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh who specializes in Puerto Rican politics and electoral organizing, said the timing of the comments could spell trouble for Trump’s campaign.
“When you combine yesterday’s events with other grievances from Puerto Ricans, you’re really not pursuing a sound political strategy,” Tormos-Aponte said.
The Harris campaign released an ad running online in battleground states aimed at Puerto Rican voters highlighting the comedian’s remarks. The comments earned Harris a statement of support from Puerto Rican music star Bad Bunny and sparked backlash from Republicans in Florida and Puerto Rico.
From Labor Day through last weekend, both campaigns made more visits to Pennsylvania than to Georgia, Arizona and Nevada combined, according to the Associated Press’ tracking of the campaigns’ public events. The state has some of the fastest-growing Hispanic communities, including in Reading and Allentown, where more than half the population is Hispanic.
According to the Census Bureau, the number of Latino eligible voters in Pennsylvania has more than doubled since 2000, from 206,000 to 620,000 in 2023. More than half of them are Puerto Rican voters.
The comedian’s comments were played on Spanish-language radio in Pennsylvania early Monday by one of Harris’ surrogates from Allentown, Pennsylvania, who criticized Trump for not apologizing beyond a statement from the campaign that said: “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
In Central Florida, U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, a Democrat whose district includes neighborhoods where gigantic numbers of Puerto Ricans have recently moved off the island, noted Monday that there are “huge numbers” of Puerto Ricans in swing states.
“We’re thinking about it, and you know what, we’re going to vote,” Soto said at a news conference called by Puerto Rican leaders. “That’s the only thing we can do right now.”
Harris said Monday that none of the hate at the Madison Square Garden rally would support the dreams and aspirations of the American people, but would instead “fuel the fuel to attempt to divide our country.”
She said Trump’s event on Sunday, where speakers uttered cruel and racist slurs, “highlighted the point I have been making throughout the campaign.”
“He’s focused on his grievances and is actually fixated on that, on himself and on the division of our country, and that is in no way something that is going to strengthen the American family, the American worker,” the Democratic presidential candidate told reporters .
Harris also said: “What he did last night is not a discovery. It’s just more of the same and possibly more vibrant than usual. “Donald Trump spends all his time trying to get Americans to point fingers at each other, he stirs up hatred and division, and that’s why people are exhausted by him.”
Harris also spoke about her proposals for Puerto Rico, such as creating a task force to bring in private companies to modernize the island’s power grid.
Trump planned to return to Pennsylvania with a visit to Allentown on Tuesday after addressing reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida.
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Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Associated Press writers Mike Schneider in Orlando and Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.
