Fallout spreads from racist rhetoric at Trump's MSG rally

Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally Sunday evening was supposed to provide his closing argument against Kamala Harris. Instead, Trump and his supporters are being forced to answer for hateful and racist rhetoric delivered from the podium Sunday night with just eight days left in the campaign.

The comments, while reminiscent of many made by Trump in the campaign’s final weeks, were made by a comedian early in the night’s schedule and were supposed to be jokes. Now, they are dominating the news cycle and putting Trump’s campaign on the backfoot with just under a week until the election.

Longtime Trump adviser Peter Navarro is calling the comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, “the biggest, stupidest asshole that ever came down the comedy pike” after he called Puerto Rico a “floating island of hot garbage” during his often-vulgar opening set.

And Trump’s opponents are using the rally as proof of the former president's divisiveness, going as far as likening the rhetoric from Sunday’s rally to the sinister 1939 Nazi rally that took place in the same venue. 

“My reaction is that was a combination of 1933 Germany, 1939 Madison Square Garden last night,” former Trump adviser Anthony Scaramucci said on MSNBC's “Morning Joe” Monday morning. “What you saw last night is a divisive America. That's race baiting. It's all the things that we were doing in the '30s and '40s.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.), called Sunday night’s event a “hate rally.”

“This was not just a presidential rally, this was not just a campaign rally. I think it's important for people to understand these are mini January 6 rallies, these are mini Stop the Steal rallies,” she said on “Morning Joe.”

Florida GOP Rep. Byron Donalds blamed the media for the backlash surrounding Sunday's rally during an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Monday, saying the media is too focused on "fear-mongering" and not "the facts and the substance."

"So to the New York Daily News, is it a racist rally if you have a Black man from Florida who's originally from New York speaking at the rally? I don't think so," Donalds said. Still, Donalds distanced himself from Hinchcliffe's comments.

"I didn't agree with what the comedian said. None of us did," Donalds said. "When it came out, we were all like, 'Wait what? Who? Did that get out? No, no, no.' Nobody agreed with that. Nobody."

Last night, Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott, up for reelection this year in a state heavily populated with Puerto Ricans, wrote on social media that the “joke bombed for a reason,” and “Puerto Ricans are amazing people and amazing Americans!”

Yet another Floridian, GOP Rep. María Elvira Salazar, was also quick to condemn the comedian. “This rhetoric does not reflect GOP values,” she wrote in a post on X Sunday evening.

Early Monday morning, the Harris campaign was quick to jump in, highlighting headlines in 17 newspapers, eight clips from TV shows, and 29 other statements from politicians, celebrities and journalists.

Famous Puerto Ricans rushed to bolster Harris, including pop-phenom Bad Bunny, along with Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin.

Hinchcliffe’s backlash-inducing comments were not limited to Puerto Rico. The comedian also made a crude remark about “carving watermelons” after seeing a Black man in the audience. Another opener, businessman Grant Cardone, likened Harris’ advisers to “pimp handlers.”

And Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who has shaped many of Trump’s immigration policies, said Americans are having their jobs “looted and stolen from them” and sent to foreign countries.

He went even further: “America is for America and Americans only,” he said, a starkly anti-immigration view that advances what has already been said throughout the campaign.

Trump himself continued his trend of increasingly divisive rhetoric, including mocking those who have criticized his claims that his political opponents are America’s “enemy within.”

“When I say ‘the enemy from within,’ the other side goes crazy,” Trump told the crowd.

Last night, the Trump campaign was quick to distance itself from Hinchcliffe’s set. “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” spokesperson Danielle Alvarez said in a statement. While the campaign was quick to denounce Hinchliffe, Trump himself has so far been silent about the rally, aside from one repost on Truth Social noting the number of viewers.

In a social media post, Hinchcliffe accused those reacting negatively to his performance of having “no sense of humor.” “I love Puerto Rico and vacation there,” he said on X in response to comments from Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz. “I made fun of everyone … watch the whole set.”

New Jersey congressional candidate Nellie Pou, who is Puerto Rican, said the rally was reminiscent of Trump’s widely criticized handling of Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island in 2017.

“These words are a warning of how he would treat Puerto Ricans if he were to set foot again in the White House,” she wrote on X.

Greta Reich contributed to this report.