Puerto Rican rapper Dangerous Bunny signaled his help for Vice President Kamala Harris Sunday, sharing a video clip of Harris’ plans for the island moments after a speaker at a Trump rally known as Puerto Rico “a floating island of rubbish.”
“There’s a lot at stake on this election for Puerto Rican voters and Puerto Rico,” Harris says in a video that Dangerous Bunny, whose actual title is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, shared to his 45 million followers on Instagram.
“I’ll always remember what Donald Trump did and what he didn’t do when Puerto Rico wanted a caring and a reliable chief,” Harris additionally stated within the video, referring to then-President Trump’s response after Hurricane Maria barreled by way of Puerto Rico in 2017. Trump drew criticism when he visited the island to survey the injury and tossed paper towels right into a crowd, a gesture many considered as insensitive.
“He deserted the island, tried to dam help after back-to-back devastating hurricanes and provided nothing greater than paper towels and insults,” Harris stated.
Comic Tony Hinchcliffe drew outrage Sunday when he made disparaging feedback about Puerto Rico at Trump’s rally in Madison Sq. Backyard.
“I don’t know if you understand this, however there’s actually a floating island of rubbish in the course of the ocean proper now,” Hinchcliffe stated. “I believe it’s known as Puerto Rico.”
Hinchcliffe additionally drew on racist stereotypes in his speech. “These Latinos,” he stated, “they love making infants.”
On Monday, Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt downplayed the Puerto Rico touch upon “Fox & Pals.”
“Look, it was a comic who made a joke in poor style,” Leavitt stated. “Clearly that joke doesn’t mirror the views of President Trump or our marketing campaign. And I believe it’s unhappy that the media will decide up on one joke that was made by a comic somewhat than the truths that had been shared by the outstanding record of audio system that we had.”
Main Latino members of Congress on Monday rebuked Hinchcliffe’s remarks at Trump’s rally.
“Hateful rhetoric has real-world penalties,” Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-San Pedro), the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, stated in an announcement. “When political leaders, influencers, and people with a big social platform select language that dehumanizes communities, households get damage, and hate crimes rise.”
She added: “The shameful rhetoric displayed by Donald Trump and his allies at Madison Sq. Backyard — the place Puerto Ricans, migrants, and Democratic leaders had been overtly vilified — isn’t solely divisive however harmful.”
Hinchcliffe defended his remarks after the rally, mocking vice presidential nominee Tim Walz’s criticism of his Puerto Rican feedback in a video with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
“These folks don’t have any humorousness,” Hinchcliffe wrote on X. “Wild {that a} vice presidential candidate would take outing of his ‘busy schedule’ to research a joke taken out of context to make it appear racist.”
Including that he liked Puerto Rico, Hinchcliffe and vacationed there, Hinchcliffe stated he made enjoyable of everybody. “Watch the entire set,” he wrote.
Different Puerto Rican stars who’ve beforehand expressed help for Harris, together with singer-songwriter and actor Ricky Martin and singer and actress Jennifer Lopez, doubled down on their help.
“That is what they consider us,” Ricky Martin wrote in a put up to his 18 million followers on Instagram: Vote for @kamalaharris.”
Lopez additionally shared the Harris video on Sunday to her 250 million Instagram followers, together with stars, a clapping emoji and the Puerto Rican flag.
Sunday’s controversy at Madison Sq. Backyard got here as Democrats and Republicans compete for Puerto Rican votes in pivotal battleground states. Pennsylvania is house to about half 1,000,000 Puerto Ricans and Philadelphia has the second-largest stateside Puerto Rican inhabitants after New York Metropolis.
On Sunday, Harris traveled to Freddy and Tony’s Restaurant, an informal family-style Puerto Rican eatery in Philadelphia, to tout her “alternative economic system process power for Puerto Rico.” The plan entails modernizing the island’s vitality grid, decreasing housing prices and selling financial alternative.
“It’s about giving folks entry to alternative, figuring out that the folks in all communities — in our group — they need, sure, a job, however they need to have the ability to construct wealth,” Harris advised the group. “They need to have the ability to construct intergenerational wealth, house possession, small enterprise progress.”
Harris condemned Trump’s rally as “fanning the gasoline of division within the nation.” Requested in regards to the Puerto Rico feedback Monday morning, Harris stated in accordance with pool experiences: “it’s extra of the identical and perhaps extra vivid than ordinary.”
“That’s why individuals are exhausted with him,” Harris stated.
