BFFR, por favor!
Source: Chip Somodevilla / Getty
Over the weekend, MAGA comedian Tony Hinchcliffe performed a racist set during a rally for Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden, during which he called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” said he and his “only” Black friend carved “watermelons” together for Halloween, and said Latinos “love making babies,” hate “pulling out” and “come inside, just like they did to our country.”
For whatever reason, this caused a lot of backlash for the MAGA world. (I say “for whatever reason” because — come on, y’all — Trump is more offensive than that every time he opens the sphincter in the middle of his face that he calls a mouth.) So, Trump and other Republicans have been scrambling to do damage control with roughly a week left before Election Day, and for Trump, that basically means claiming to be Puerto Rico’s favorite white savior, lying about all the good he has done there, and deflecting from the issue by disparaging Kamala Harris.
From The Guardian:
“Nobody loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do,” the former president said a little over an hour into a rally in Allentown, in the Lehigh Valley, which has a sizable Latino population.
More than 68,000 people – over half of the total population – in Allentown are Hispanic or Latino, according to US census data. A few blocks from the rally, a home had a Puerto Rican flag posted on the door.
He also claimed that he had done a lot for Puerto Rico as president. Trump drew ridicule for tossing paper towels into a crowd on the island after it was ravaged by a hurricane; blocked hurricane aid; and mused about selling the island.
Trump — who basically treated Puerto Rico like it had won a Walmart toiletries sweepstake contest in response to its need for natural disaster relief — said during his rally in Pennsylvania that he had “done more for Puerto Rico than any president by far — nobody close.”
“I will deliver the best future for Puerto Ricans and for Hispanic Americans. Kamala will deliver you poverty and crime,” he added.
He also lied and said during an interview with Fox News, that when Puerto Ricans see him, they give him a “hug and a kiss.”
*sigh*
All Trump does is lie about crime, his political opponents, and his own history of racism, and, in this case, anti-Latino bigotry.
Source: Chip Somodevilla / Getty
Trump wasn’t showing America that “nobody loves our Latino community” like he does when he repeatedly compared South American migrants to Hannibal Lecter and called them “animals” who are “not human.” He wasn’t showing Hispanic people that “love” when he dabbled in eugenics-style scientific racism by suggesting migrants have “bad genes” that predispose them to commit violent crimes. Trump lied about migrants bringing “tremendous infectious disease” to the U.S. and said they are “poisoning the blood” of the country. Trump lamented that the U.S. receives so many migrants from South America and audibly wished the U.S. received more white immigrants from “nice” European countries. He generalized Mexican migrants and rapists and drug dealers. Trump appears to be coming down with a case of bigot amnesia now that Election Day is so close and he remembers that he can’t count on the white-and-racist vote alone, but we remember, and, hopefully, Latino voters will remember at the ballot box next week. (Notice nobody is even talking about Hinchcliffe’s “watermelon” joke, because anti-Blackness is so normalized in America that it barely even registers on the political scale anymore.)
Source: Chip Somodevilla / Getty
Anyway, Trump and his Trump-humpers aren’t the only ones doing damage control. In response to Hinchcliffe’s “comedy” set, particularly, the line about Puerto Rico being a “floating island of garbage,” President Joe Biden said during an interview with VotoLatino, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
Actually, that’s the part of Biden’s remarks that MAGA supporters heard thanks to a selectively edited Fox News clip that enraged Trump-loving snowflakes. A full transcript of the interview shows that Biden actually said this about Puerto Ricans and the racist MAGA deplorables who disparaged them:
“They’re good, decent, honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done.”
So, Biden’s full quote suggests he was specifically talking about Hinchcliffe and other demonstrably racist Trump supporters, but since there’s no Media Literacy For MAGA Dumbasses class for Trump supporters to take, Biden had to clarify his remark.
“Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage—which is the only word I can think of to describe it,” Biden tweeted. “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation.”
Actually, if Trump is elected next week, it will indicate that his and Hinchcliffe’s remarks absolutely do “reflect who we are as a nation.”
To make matters worse, the garrulous Gringo also spoke to reporters while in a garbage truck to try to drive home the point that Biden called his supporters “garbage.”
“How do you like my garbage truck? This truck is in honor of Kamala and Joe Biden,” said Trump. “I love Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico loves me! I don’t know about a comedian.”
Sad.