It’s drawn comparisons to a Nazi rally and managed to insult millions of American citizens, but Donald Trump believes Sunday night’s rally/hate-fest at Madison Square Garden couldn’t have gone better.
While speaking to faith leaders in Georgia on Monday, Trump brought up the Midtown Manhattan event: “Last night we had a great rally at Madison Square Garden.” Later, at a campaign appearance in Atlanta, he declared, “We’ve had the greatest rallies in the history of the world, not just of this country. There’s never been—I mean, we filled up Madison Square Garden last night. We could have filled it up 10 times.” At neither point did the GOP nominee mention that the featured speakers gave remarks that involved:
- Calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage”
- Saying, “These Latinos, they love making babies…There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside. Just like they did to our country.”
- “Joking” about Jews being cheap
- “Joking” about a Black person carving a watermelon for Halloween
- Calling Hillary Clinton a “sick son of a bitch”
- Declaring, “America is for Americans and Americans only”
- Saying Kamala Harris has “pimp handlers”
- Typically offensive comments about Palestinians
- Typically offensive comments about transgender people
Nor has Trump commented on the fact that his “great rally” led multiple Republican lawmakers to speak out against the event.
Meanwhile, it turns out that, somehow, Sunday night’s proceedings could have been even more offensive, according to a report from The Bulwark’s Marc Caputo:
Donald Trump’s campaign was left scrambling Sunday night after roast-comic Tony Hinchcliffe made insulting jokes about Hispanic and Black people onstage at the ex-president’s Madison Square Garden rally. The lines sparked immediate backlash and even condemnation from fellow Republicans. But four top campaign sources said it could have been even worse.
“He had a joke calling [Vice President Kamala] Harris a ‘cunt,’” a campaign insider involved in the discussions about the event told The Bulwark. “Let’s say it was a red flag.” Hinchcliffe’s remarks—and the ensuing backlash—[have] sparked questions about how such an offensive speech was allowed at such a high-profile rally; whether it was deliberate; and why a presidential campaign would elevate a roast-master comic edgelord in the closing days of a tight race for the White House.
Per Caputo: “Campaign staffers had asked all speakers to submit drafts of their speeches ahead of time—before they were loaded into the teleprompter—according to the aforementioned sources.” Once the objectionable “cunt” joke was flagged, Hinchcliffe was asked to cut it. The same sources claimed they never saw the other deeply offensive remarks because those were supposedly ad-libbed. (The Bulwark was unable to reach Hinchcliffe for comment. Vanity Fair has contacted a representative for Hinchcliffe for comment.)
It’s important to note that while Team Trump apparently nixed the C-word, and later spoke out against Hinchcliffe’s “floating island of garbage” line, no other remarks have been condemned by Trump or the campaign, which suggests they were fine with them. Which, if you’ve listened to any of the words that have come out of Trump’s mouth over the last eight years, makes sense!
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