If That Puerto Rico Joke Doesn’t Cost Trump, JD Vance’s Reaction Will

The Trump campaign is still doing damage control after a comedian at his hate rally in New York City made a wildly racist joke about Puerto Rico.

When asked about the joke on Monday, Vance claimed hadn’t “seen” it, which seems highly unlikely given the moment’s virality and the fact that he is running for vice president.

“I’ve heard about the joke; I haven’t actually seen the joke,” Vance said after being asked if the series of racist jokes was setting the right tone for the campaign just one week out from the election.

“Maybe it’s a stupid, racist joke, as you said; maybe it’s not. I haven’t seen it,” he continued. “I’m not gonna comment on the specificity of the joke … but I think that we have to stop getting offended at every little thing in the United States of America, I’m just so over it.”

The series of jokes from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at Trump’s rally already looks like it could cost him the election. Hinchcliffe used his stage time to make vulgar statements about Latino immigrant families, said that he carved Halloween watermelons with a Black man, and, most notably, stated that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage.”

Vance’s reaction was unwise and hypocritical. This is the same guy who was deeply bothered just by being called “weird” and lied about Haitian immigrants eating people’s pets, but it’s the rest of us who need to toughen up. While Trump campaign spokesperson Daniella Alvarez has said the “joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” Vance refused to even acknowledge any issue with the joke. While the actual electoral fallout from these comments is yet to be seen, Vance’s flippancy certainly won’t help the Trump campaign.

Joe Rogan says he is still open to interviewing Kamala Harris—if she’ll drop everything and come to him.

Responding to rumors on both sides of the aisle, the podcast host took to X in the wee hours of Tuesday morning to clear up some confusion about why his proposed interview with the vice president hasn’t materialized. TLDR: He’ll only speak with Harris on his terms.

“For the record the Harris campaign has not passed on doing the podcast. They offered a date for Tuesday, but I would have had to travel to her and they only wanted to do an hour. I strongly feel the best way to do it is in the studio in Austin,” wrote Rogan, adding that his “sincere wish is to just have a nice conversation and get to know her as a human being. I really hope we can make it happen.”

With only a week left until Election Day and a packed schedule of rallies, interviews, and campaign events, it seems that Harris may not have Rogan’s audience of mostly Republican and independent young men top of mind. But this lukewarm defense from Rogan makes it clear that he wants to put all the blame on Harris, when really it’s also his stubbornness at fault.

Perhaps Donald Trump set up an impossible standard with his interview for The Joe Rogan Experience, as the Republican nominee backed out of several previously scheduled events to travel to the Austin podcast studio. During his three-hour interview with Trump, Rogan allowed the former president to lie to his millions of viewers about immigration, the economy, and the 2020 election, with Trump stating, “I won that second election so easy.”

With Harris’s tentative cancellation, Rogan’s schedule is wide open, and so the podcaster will now instead interview Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance on Wednesday morning, rather than make any sacrifices to interview the sitting vice president and Democratic nominee for president. Vance will travel to Austin to appear on the show.

Donald Trump’s campaign reportedly stopped comedian Tony Hinchcliffe from calling Kamala Harris a “c*nt” onstage at his rally at Madison Square Garden, raising serious concerns about the severely racist jokes they did allow.

The Bulwark reported Monday that Hinchcliffe’s set had been reviewed by Trump’s campaign, even though the former president’s team claimed they had not vetted all of the comedian’s remarks.

Four top campaign insiders told The Bulwark that one particularly unsavory joke was spotted when Hinchcliffe’s speech was loaded into the teleprompter.

“He had a joke calling Harris a ‘c*nt,’” said one campaign insider, who was involved in discussions about Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden. “Let’s say it was a red flag.”

Hinchcliffe removed the joke from his set when asked by Trump’s staff. However, Hinchcliffe’s other wildly offensive jokes likening Puerto Rico to a “floating island of garbage,” mocking Latinos for not using birth control, saying he had “carved watermelons” with his Black “buddies,” and calling Palestinians “rock-throwers” still made it into the set.

After the rally, Vianca Rodríguez, the deputy director of Hispanic communications for the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign, said that “they don’t have absolute control” over what the rally’s many speakers said onstage.

The campaign sources told The Bulwark that they hadn’t spotted the other objectionable punch lines because they had all been ad-libbed. Some lines, such as Hinchcliffe’s racist remark about a Black man in the audience, did appear to be riffs, but they still could have been planned by the comedian.

Clearly, Trump’s campaign had some control, as they prevented Hinchcliffe from using profane language. And what they did allow was the horrific joke about Puerto Rico that overshadowed Trump’s entire appearance.

Hinchcliffe reportedly practiced that joke at the comedy club The Stand the night before, where it hadn’t done very well, either. He reportedly said multiple times during his Saturday night set that his jokes would earn a better reaction “tomorrow at the rally.”

Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said in a statement Monday that “this joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” referring to Hinchcliffe’s joke about Puerto Rico, leaving the other racist remarks unaddressed.

Without calling Harris the c-word, there were still plenty of hateful remarks made about her. One speaker was David Rem, a sanitation worker who was billed as Trump’s childhood friend (though they reportedly met for the first time just two weeks ago, per Newsweek). Rem called Harris the “Antichrist.”

And Trump’s campaign doesn’t seem totally opposed to using the slur. Elon Musk’s America PAC shared a 34-second ad Monday that referred to Harris as “the c-word” multiple times.

Donald Trump is ready to start the steal.

In a Truth Social post late Monday night, Trump began sowing doubt about election results in Pennsylvania just days into early voting.

“Wow! York County, Pennsylvania, received THOUSANDS of potentially FRAUDULENT Voter Registration Forms and Mail-In Ballot Applications from a third party group,” he wrote, grossly misconstruing a normal election proceeding.

It is true that York County’s Office of Elections received thousands of voter registration forms and mail-in ballot applications. There is nothing beyond the pale happening. The forms were dropped off by a nonpartisan voter-turnout organization called the Voter Registration Project, also known as Everybody Votes.

“As with all submissions, our staff follows a process for ensuring all voter registrations and mail-in ballot requests are legal,” said York County President Commissioner Julie Wheeler to the York Daily Record, noting that the county will examine the forms and applications to look for any possible fraud. “We’re in a phase now where we need to do our homework before we go and make accusations when we don’t have the data to back it up.”

Meanwhile, Trump also spread lies about nearby Lancaster County, writing in the same post that the county was “caught with 2600 Fake Ballots and Forms, all written by the same person. Really bad ‘stuff.’ WHAT IS GOING ON IN PENNSYLVANIA??? Law Enforcement must do their job, immediately!!! WOW!!!”

Again, Trump is highlighting a standard process of ensuring election integrity and painting it as a large-scale nefarious scheme by Democrats. Lancaster County officials are combing through 2,500 last-minute voter registrations and identifying any red flags. After seeing some forms with false names and similar handwriting, concerns “were raised during the staff’s normal process to review and enter applications into [a state database] and law enforcement was alerted,” the local election board said in a statement. There is no evidence that there are thousands of fake ballots “all written by the same person,” as Trump claimed.

As Election Day looms, expect more of these extreme exaggerations—especially in swing states—from Trump and his Republican friends.

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.

Donald Trump’s former aide has been cooking up an executive order for Trump to turn the military on the American people.

Russell Vought, a key author of Project 2025 who is reportedly in line to be chief of staff for Donald Trump, has bragged about laying out the legal rationale to allow Trump to deploy the military against protesters, according to recordings of private speeches obtained by Documented and ProPublica.

In a speech earlier this year, Vought, who worked as Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, explained that he would use the Insurrection Act to allow the president to use the military to quell political protest. Vought, who also leads the pro-Trump think tank the Center for Renewing America, proudly announced that the organization is working tirelessly to find legal avenues to allow Trump to invoke the act and deploy the military on day one.

“We have detailed agency plans,” said Vought at an event for the think tank. “We are writing the actual executive orders. We are writing the actual regulations now, and we are sorting out the legal authorities for all of what President Trump is running on.”

Vought also stated that he believes that this brute force is the Republicans’ only hope against their “adversaries,” using rhetoric similar to Trump’s recent threats about “the enemy within.”

“The stark reality in America is that we are in the late stages of a complete Marxist takeover of the country in which our adversaries already hold the weapons of the government apparatus, and they have aimed it at us,” said Vought. “We are here in the year of 2024, a year that very well [could]—and I believe it will—rival 1776 and 1860 for the complexity and the uncertainty of the forces arrayed against us.”

In another 2023 speech, Vought also vowed to make government workers miserable by defunding their organizations, making them political enemies, and putting them “in trauma.”

“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” said Vought in 2023. “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can’t do all of the rules against our energy industry because they have no bandwidth financially to do so.”

If this all sounds familiar, it’s because Vought was also caught by undercover reporters in August declaring his love of “Christian nation-ism.” Despite Trump’s lies that he knows nothing about Project 2025, Vought told reporters that the Republican candidate is “very supportive of what we do.”