His convinced smile in favor of Donald Trump gives way to a serious gesture. His eyes widen behind his glasses, as if something had just hit his face. “I hadn’t heard it. I went to bed early,” Fernando Garriga told elDiario.es after hearing the racist comments made at the Republican candidate’s rally at Madison Square Garden in New York last Sunday.
“If someone refers to Latinos in a derogatory way, I think that’s out of place. We Latin Americans constitute a workforce that produces wealth in this country. We are people who come to work,” argues, somewhat confused, this resident of Allentown, Pennsylvania, a key state for the November 5 presidential election.
Comments by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who said Puerto Rico is a “garbage island” and that Latin Americans “love making babies,” crossed a line that Republicans have always balanced. Despite his xenophobic and racist rhetoric, Trump managed to create a so-called difference between “good” and “bad” immigrants – people in an irregular situation – that avoided generating internal conflict for many Latin Americans living in the United States. -United and that they support. the former president.
In the case of Puerto Ricans, the situation was even less conflictual, since they are American citizens, although they only have the right to vote in federal elections if they register in one of the 50 states or in the District of Columbia. After Mexicans, Puerto Ricans make up the second largest group of Latin Americans in the United States. In total, Latinos make up 15 percent of the country’s total electorate, and many of those voters are deeply offended just a week before the election.
The impact of these words at the rally caused one of Trump’s biggest supporters within the Puerto Rican community, musician Nicky Jam, to withdraw his support. In a video posted on Instagram, the man who participated in one of his campaign events assured that he had given him his support because “he thought it would be good for the economy”. However, he displays his anger because “never in my life would I have thought that an actor would come and criticize my country”. “Puerto Rico respects itself,” he concluded in his brief video statement with more than 90,000 likes in just three hours on the social network.
Puerto Rico’s archbishop issued a statement Monday criticizing the comments and demanding that Trump personally apologize. In Pennsylvania, an independent group of Puerto Ricans distributed a letter urging people not to vote Republican in the election, and in Allentown, the state’s third-largest city, a group of demonstrators protested a rally organized by the Republican Party. former president. given in the town since Tuesday.
“I don’t approve, I feel like it was a joke in bad taste,” criticizes Jackeline Rivera, who is part of the local chapter of the Republican Party in Allentown, in a conversation with this media. But he ends his response with the same formula as the rest of the Puerto Rican Republicans who have already condemned these remarks. “I know the Democrats are trying to twist it to make it seem like these are the values of the Republican Party, but that doesn’t reflect Trump or the party at all.”
Asked if he would like Trump to publicly condemn the comments, Rivera said, “There’s no need.” “Maybe that would give the Democrats more opportunities to continue attacking him with this story,” says the woman, who also recognizes that the comedian’s jokes might cause the mogul to lose votes. “He won’t lose enough to lose the elections,” she said convinced.
Even if the investigations they continue to show technical equality between Harris and Trump in Pennsylvania, the key state that this year distributes the most votes in the Electoral College – which then elects the president – and which holds the key to the Oval Office. During the last elections, it was a few ballots that allowed Joe Biden to win in Arizona. In Pennsylvania, victory was a matter of 80,000 votes.
Trump called for votes in Allentown two days after racist insults in New York. This city is one of the key places that can determine who wins Pennsylvania’s votes on November 5 and more than 50% of its residents are Latino. That doesn’t seem to bother the former president, however: On Tuesday morning, Trump defined the Madison Square Garden event as “a celebration of absolute love.” “There has never been a rally this beautiful,” he said from his Mar-a-Lago home. He also tried to distance himself from the actor, saying that “he didn’t know him”.
The opportunity to recover the Latino vote
This Tuesday, during his election in Allentown, the former president boasted of the support he enjoys among Latino voters. “No one loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do,” he told his supporters.
The Republican is trying to put the controversy behind him, but his margin is small and Democrats don’t want to let him fade into oblivion. On Monday evening, Harris’ campaign released a new video featuring the comedian’s clip saying Puerto Rico is a “garbage island.” In the next frame Trump’s face appears.
He place remember how the tycoon handled the Hurricane María disaster in 2017, which caused death and destruction on the island. Faced with the problem, the president at the time considered the idea of selling Puerto Rico. A report later revealed that the Trump administration delayed more than $20 billion in humanitarian aid to the island in the wake of the hurricane. Ironically, this is one of the false accusations that the Republican is launching today against the Joe Biden government regarding aid for Hurricane Helene.
Harris’ video comes just after the coincidental Sunday when the Democrat announced a new economic plan for Puerto Rico. The measures were announced before the Madison Square Garden rally had yet ended. If elected, the Democratic candidate promised that she would promote an “economy of opportunity” for the island. “Working with the private sector, the Puerto Rican government, municipalities and other stakeholders, we will work to strengthen the energy grid, make Puerto Rico a hub for the industries of the future and elevate the role of the island as a dynamic economic and cultural center. “” the Harris campaign said in a fact sheet posted on the campaign website.
Meanwhile, the vice-president distanced herself this Wednesday from the controversy sparked by President Joe Biden. when it seemed calling Trump supporters “trash” in interview. “I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on which choice they vote for,” Harris said. The White House took the floor to qualify the president’s remarks: “The president called the hateful rhetoric at the Madison Square Garden rally rubbish.”
The Democratic candidate found an opportunity to stop Trump’s advance among Latino voters and improve his numbers. Barely two weeks ago, an investigation carried out by New York Times This shows that Harris was losing support in this community, while the Republican managed to consolidate the positive trend already started in 2016.
