J.D. Vance at the Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday.
Photo: AFP via Getty Images
Few people expected that the most important line of Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday would be delivered by a stand-up comic. But comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s foul joke about Puerto Rico has dominated the news cycle on Monday, with Democrats condemning the insult comedian for calling the territory a “floating pile of garbage.”
Even Republicans were aghast by Hinchcliffe’s joke, with the Trump campaign issuing a statement claiming that it “does not reflect the views” of the candidate who reportedly tried to sell Puerto Rico while he was president. Florida senator Rick Scott — whose state is home to close to 1.2 million Puerto Ricans — tweeted that “the joke bombed for a reason. It’s not funny and it’s not true.”
But Trump’s ever-loyal running mate, J.D. Vance, took another approach, defending Hinchcliffe at a rally in Wausau, Wisconsin.
Vance, who spoke at MSG after Hinchcliffe, made a talking point familiar to conservatives in comedy, stating that offensive jokes are just jokes and shouldn’t be taken seriously. “Our country was built by frontiersmen who conquered the wilderness,” he said. “We are not going to — we’re not going to restore the greatness of American civilization if we get offended at every little thing. Let’s have a sense of humor.”
This appears to be a new opinion for Vance. The week before, the Catholic senator was condemning Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer for a video in which she gave someone a Dorito as if it were communion in a botched themed nod to President Biden’s CHIPS Act. Vance called that “sacrilegious” and “offensive.” (Whitmer also apologized.)
As Vance doubles down on a racist joke made by a racist insult comedian, the Harris campaign is using the backlash to try and drive Puerto Rican voters to the polls in swing states like Pennsylvania, which is home to nearly 450,000 Puerto Ricans. Harris shared a video stating that she would “never forget what Donald Trump did and what he did not do when Puerto Rico needed a caring and a competent leader” after Hurricane Maria, and she outlined a plan for expanding the Puerto Rican economy. The video was shared by Puerto Rican pop star Bad Bunny, who then endorsed Harris for president, as well as Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony. On Monday, Harris’s campaign debuted a new ad using Hinchcliffe’s words that it said would begin airing immediately.
