Puerto Ricans in New York City furious over comedian's remarks at Trump rally at MSG
SOUTH BRONX, New York City (WABC) -- Outrage is building on Monday after Donald Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday featured a comic and several other speakers making racist comments.
Approach a Puerto Rican in New York and play the video of Sunday night's incendiary comments about their homeland, then watch the fire ignite.
"What kind of people say that? They don't know us. Why do they judge like that?" one person said.
"It's really hard to accept that that came out of his mouth," another said.
"I don't know if you guys know this, but there's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it's called Puerto Rico," stand-up comic Tony Hinchcliffe said to the jam-packed Madison Square Garden crowd ahead of former President Trump's appearance.
The joke bombed but the explosive fallout reverberated across the country to the 5-million-plus stateside Puerto Ricans - many of them registered voters - and more than 3-million American citizens on the island.
"Convicted Trump didn't say the words that were said at his rally. But it doesn't matter because it was his rally," Luis Miranda, political strategist, said.
In East Harlem, a who's who of Puerto Rican federal, state and city locals held a news conference to condemn the comments uttered at a rally designed to gain supporters in a tight presidential election. Instead, the comments could backfire in a key battleground state.
"He made a calculated error yesterday. Basically he said goodbye to PA, to Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania we have 450,000 Puerto Ricans," New York Democrat Rep. Nydia Velazquez said.
"This is about human rights, civil rights, and this is about my people, mother, my grandmother who died after Hurricane Maria. This is about our people who have suffered for way too long," Frankie Miranda, of the Hispanic Federation, said.
Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory in 1917, and the first large wave of migration occurred after World War II to ease labor shortages. There are now more Puerto Ricans in the U.S. than on the island.
Those who stayed behind say they often feel like second-class citizens because they can't vote in presidential elections and receive limited federal funding compared with U.S. states.
That festering resentment erupted when Trump visited Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria slammed into the island as a powerful Category 4 storm in 2017. He tossed paper towels into a crowd and denied the storm's official death toll, with experts estimating that nearly 3,000 people died in the sweltering aftermath.
José Acevedo, a 48-year-old health worker from San Juan, shook his head as he recalled the feelings that coursed through him when he watched the Sunday rally.
"What humiliation, what discrimination!" he said early Monday as he waited to catch a public bus to work.
Acevedo said he immediately texted relatives in New York, including an uncle who is a Republican and had planned to vote for Trump.
"He told me that he was going to have to analyze his decision," Acevedo said, adding that his relatives were in shock. "They couldn't believe it."
The National Puerto Rican Day Parade condemned Hinchcliffe's remarks adding, "This insult will not diminish who we are or what we represent but should remind us of the critical importance of voting on November 5th."
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Some information from the Associated Press
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