Lawmakers and other leaders are speaking out against comments made about Puerto Rico and Latinos at former President Donald Trump’s rally in New York over the weekend.
The rally began with Tony Hinchcliffe, a comedian and podcast host, assailing Puerto Rico: “There’s a lot going on, like, I don’t know if you know this but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now,” he said. “I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
“These Latinos, they love making babies, too. Just know that they do,” Hinchcliffe continued in another joke.
Democratic New York Rep. Nydia Velázquez, the first Puerto Rican woman elected to the House, said at a news conference on Monday that the comments were “racist, vile and reprehensible.”
“That guy doesn’t know us,” she said on Trump. “He doesn’t know the Puerto Rican community. He doesn’t know the Latino community. He doesn’t know people of color in this country, he hasn’t taken the time to learn.”
Democratic New York Rep. Dan Goldman, who represents a large community of Puerto Ricans in Manhattan, also put the blame directly on Trump, arguing that it was his rally where the comments were made. He said it is an example that “you know where they stand. You know where Donald Trump stands.”
Jorge Figueroa, the president of Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida, said that comments like those at the rally about Puerto Ricans were “very disrespectful” and do “not have any place in politics.”
Marcos Vilar, the executive director of Alianza for Progress, an organization focused on supporting Puerto Rican and Latinx communities in Florida, said that this is nothing new for Trump and said the former president has been playing “this game of bullying” for years.
