Trump Gets Slammed in Key Swing State Over Racist Puerto Rico Joke

Donald Trump and his presidential campaign are facing a huge backlash over a comedian’s racist joke about Puerto Rico at his rally at Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday.

Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” at the rally ahead of Trump’s speech, forcing the campaign to go into damage control and condemn the remarks. But Trump hasn’t personally commented or posted any such condemnation on his Truth Social page, and the fallout is growing. 

Puerto Rican voters in Pennsylvania are reportedly furious over the comments, according to Politico. A nonpartisan group representing Puerto Ricans in the state plans to circulate a letter urging its members to vote against Trump, while other members of the community were forwarding footage of the joke on WhatsApp and urging action.

The president of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Puerto Rican Agenda, Roberto L. Lugo, told Politico that the group plans to release a letter condemning the comments and urging Puerto Ricans in the state not to vote for Trump, saying that he was “really disturbed” by the joke.

“I’m not a Republican, I’m not a Democrat, I’m independent,” Lugo said. “But at this point, it’s not about political, partisan issues. It is about the respect and honor our Puerto Ricans and Latinos deserved as citizens and legal residents of this country, that’s the issue.”

Protests are being planned for Trump’s Tuesday rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which has one of the largest Puerto Rican populations in the state and is a majority-Latino city. Plus, the PPL Center, where the rally is being held, is in the middle of Allentown’s Puerto Rican neighborhood. 

A school district in the city has even canceled classes on Tuesday.

Even Pennsylvania Republicans who support Trump, like state Representative Ryan Mackenzie, have come out against the joke.

“The comments made by this so-called ‘comedian’ at Madison Square Garden weren’t funny, they were offensive and wrong,” said Mackenzie, who is in a close race for U.S. Congress against Democratic Representative Susan Wild.

The archbishop of San Juan, Puerto Rico’s largest city, is demanding an apology from Trump, as is the chairman of Puerto Rico’s Republican Party, Angel Cintróni.

“If Donald Trump doesn’t apologize to Puerto Rico, I’m not going to vote for him,” Cintrón said on Jugando Pelota Dura, a Puerto Rican talk show Monday. Cintrón helped to secure Trump’s nomination for president at the Republican National Convention in July.

An apology may be too little and too late, though.

“If Donald Trump really wanted to disassociate himself with that, the first thing he would have said when he came onto the stage at Madison Square Garden was, ‘Hey, listen, I heard that person’s attempt at humor. It was not funny. I stand with the Puerto Rican community,’” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro told a radio station in northeast Pennsylvania on Monday. “He didn’t do that.”

A top Trump ally is free from federal prison and says he’s feeling “empowered” less than a week before Election Day.

Former Trump campaign official and self-described “political prisoner” Steve Bannon was released from a Connecticut Federal Correctional Institution Tuesday after serving four months for contempt of Congress. In 2021, Bannon refused to comply with the House January 6 committee’s probe into the insurrection, failing to produce requested documents and refusing to comply with a subpoena. He was convicted in 2022.

Bannon told Axios upon his release that he felt “amazing and more importantly empowered,” after doing time—chilling words from a man who was too antagonistic and bigoted for even Trump’s inner circle. The man known for enthusiastically platforming white nationalists and making hateful assertions about immigrants, Muslims, and then some could shoot a new dose of chaos into the already vulgar Trump campaign with his conspiracy-laden podcast.

This summer, Trump told reporters that Bannon’s conviction was “absolutely” politically motivated and that other people have done “far, far bigger things.” Bannon took the “political prisoner” mantle very seriously upon his arrest, stating, “If this is what it takes to stand up to tyranny, If this is what it takes to stand up to the Garland corrupt, criminal DOJ, if this is what it takes to stand up to Nancy Pelosi, if this is what it takes to stand up to Joe Biden, I’m proud to do it.”

The 70-year-old faces more criminal charges in New York state court, where he allegedly scammed donors who pledged money toward constructing the U.S.-Mexico border wall. The trial is set for December. Bannon has pleaded not guilty.

A conservative panelist has been banned from CNN the night after he said that he hoped another commentator’s “beeper wouldn’t go off,” after they expressed support for Palestinians.

A panel on CNN’s Newsnight with Abby Phillip descended into chaos Monday as conservative political consultant Ryan Girdusky made an offensive comment to Zeteo’s Mehdi Hasan, who is Muslim.* Girdusky is on the board of advisers for American Moment, one of many advisory groups for Project 2025, the fascist playbook for a second Trump administration.

The panel was discussing the racist remarks at Donald Trump’s rally in New York City on Sunday, when Hasan argued, “If you don’t want to be called Nazis, stop doing things [associated with Nazis].”

“You’ve been called an antisemite more than anyone else at this table,” Girdusky replied, referring to Hasan’s outspoken criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

“Yeah, yeah. By you?” Hasan asked.

“By me? No, I never called you an antisemite,” Girdusky said.

“I’m a supporter of the Palestinians, so I’m used to it,” Hasan said, shrugging.

“Yeah, well I hope your beeper doesn’t go off,” Girdusky replied. His comment was a clear reference to Israel’s attack in Lebanon, which Israel claimed only targeted beepers held by Hezbollah but actually killed at least 12 people, including two children, and injured 2,800 others.

“Did you just say I should die? Did you just say I should be killed?” Hasan responded incredulously.

As Phillip and Hasan challenged Girdusky, the right-winger backpedaled desperately, claiming that he thought Hasan had said he was a supporter of Hamas, suggesting he thinks showing support for Palestinian civilians is tantamount to terrorism. But no one was buying it.

“Are you?” Girdusky asked.

“No, of course I’m not a supporter of Hamas. Are you a racist, violent person inciting violence against me?” Hasan responded.

After the panel, CNN released a statement on Phillip’s social media saying that Girdusky would not be invited back as a guest. “There is zero room for racism or bigotry at CNN or on our air,” the statement said.

“We aim to foster thoughtful conversations and debate between people who profoundly disagree with each other in order to explore important issues and promote mutual understanding.”

But how did Girdusky end up on air in the first place?

Notably, Girdusky isn’t just a conservative; he’s far right. Girdusky previously wrote for notorious neo-Nazi Richard Spencer, according to posts on Spencer’s X accounts. Girdusky also once laughed about being Islamophobic with Gavin McInnes, the founder of the Proud Boys, a far-right neofascist group.

Girdusky is a former staffer of Trump’s running mate, JD Vance. Before that, he started the 1776 Project PAC, which mobilized opposition to “critical race theory” being taught in public schools. Girdusky had no children at the time.

Girdusky didn’t take being banned well at all. “You can stay on CNN if you falsely call every Republican a Nazi and have taken money from Qatar-funded media. Apparently you can’t go on CNN if you make a joke. I’m glad America gets to see what CNN stands for,” he wrote on X.

Earlier Monday, Girdusky had been whining about the “humor police” on X, who criticized comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s jokes at Trump’s rally. Clearly he didn’t heed his own warnings, as only hours later, he landed in hot water for a disgusting “joke” of his own.

* This story has been updated.

Donald Trump and his TruthSocial posts have again proven that a hit dog will indeed holler.

The former president took to his personal social media platform on Monday to express his disgust with former first lady Michelle Obama after her scathing warning two days prior on his catastrophic record.

“FoxNews spends far too much time promoting the Democrats, their surrogates, and their agenda. Today I watched, over and over again, an angry and totally out of control Michelle Obama trying to save the dying Campaign of Comrade Kamala Harris,” Trump wrote, bizarrely taking out his anger on his favorite news channel.

Obama did lob some serious shots at the former president in a speech in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Saturday. She pointed to Trump’s “obvious mental decline,” his history of sexual abuse allegations, and the warning from his former chief of staff John Kelly that he is “fascist to the core.” She also warned about Trump’s dire threat to women in America and expressed her frustration that some voters are “choosing to ignore Donald Trump’s gross incompetence while asking Kamala to dazzle us at every turn.”

But Trump’s beef with Fox News suggests that he may not have actually listened to the network’s rally coverage, as it was mostly negative toward Obama’s speech. He went on to accuse his most sympathetic media outlet of showing more pro-Democrat commercials than Republican ones and obscuring the polls that prove that he is winning Michigan “by so much.” He is not. Expect more rambling Truth Social posts and nonsensical allegations as we draw closer and closer to Election Day.

Republicans have been dealt a setback in how mail-in ballots are counted in the battleground state of Nevada.

The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Monday that absentee ballots without a postmark can be counted for up to three days after Election Day on November 5, rejecting a challenge from the Republican Party to have them thrown out. A majority of the court found that Nevada law allowing the counting of ballots if the postmark date “cannot be determined” also applied to envelopes without a postmark.

It’s not known how many ballots will be affected by the decision. Republicans cited one county receiving 24 such ballots during the primary election earlier this year. In their opinion, the court justices said that the GOP failed to provide any evidence that ballots without a postmark indicated fraud, that such ballots were more likely to come from a particular political party, or that the state can’t properly address concerns about the ballots’ security. 

“Rejecting timely mail ballots because of postal service omissions cuts against the strong public interest in exercising the right to vote,” the justices in the main opinion wrote. Twenty-two states and territories count late-arriving ballots, but Nevada is the only battleground state to accept ballots so late.

In August, the Republican National Committee tried to get a lower Nevada court to block the counting of ballots without a postmark, but the judge in that case said the RNC lacked standing to sue. The RNC then appealed to the state’s highest court, which put the case on a fast track and heard arguments on October 8. Republicans also tried to sue the state in federal court over postmarks and were unsuccessful. The GOP has appealed, but a decision isn’t likely to come before November 5.

The state of Nevada went to Joe Biden in 2020 by fewer than 34,000 votes, a 2.4 percent margin, and news agencies didn’t call the race until three days later. Last time, Republicans also tried to use a fake elector scheme and legal challenges to overturn the race. This time, at least one of their election-meddling plans has been stopped.