Controversial comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made several racist comments about Latinos at former President Donald Trump’s rally on Sunday at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
“I welcome migrants to the United States of America with open arms. And by open arms I mean like this,” Hinchcliffe said, waving his hands “no,” then waving his hands forward to indicate that they should go away.
He continued: “It’s wild. And these Latinos, they love making babies, too, just know that. They do. They do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside, just like they did to our country.” He then cackled, adding: “Republicans are the party with a good sense of humor.”
Hinchcliffe then called Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, “garbage.”
“There’s a lot going on,” he said. “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. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
The crowd groaned. “Okay, alright,” he said, chuckling.
Hinchcliffe made the remarks nine days before an election in which Trump is counting on making major inroads with Latino voters in order to secure a victory. There are hundreds of thousands of Puerto Rican voters in Pennsylvania, one of the most important battlegrounds in the 2024 election.
Finally, Hinchcliffe was racist toward African Americans. He pointed to a Black man in the audience. “That’s one of my buddies. He had a Halloween party last night. We had fun. We carved watermelons together. It was awesome.”
The Trump rally prompted some to draw parallels to the 1939 Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden: “So far the biggest difference between the Trump rally at MSG and the Nazi rally at MSG in 1939 is that the latter was televised in black and white,” Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch News, posted on X.
Hinchcliffe made a career for himself opening for Joe Rogan and writing for Comedy Central Roast. He started his podcast, “Kill Tony,” in 2013.
In 2021, Hinchcliffe was dropped from his agency after he called the Asian American comedian who went before him at a show a racial slur. He also called the audience “race traitors” for laughing at the comedian’s jokes.
“Tony never came up to me, talked to me, or apologized. I don’t think he thinks that was offensive,” comedian Peng Dang told USA Today.
Indeed, Hinchcliffe told Variety that his number one rule is “never apologize.”
“There’s no room for victim mentality here,” Hinchcliffe said. “When you step into a dark, dingy comedy club, what do you want to see? Think about it like a strip club. Do you want to see girls in a dress? Or do you want to see nasty fucking shit?”
Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, Vice President Kamala Harris visited a Puerto Rican restaurant. She said that, if elected, she would have a Puerto Rican Opportunity Economy Task Force and work on bringing resources to the territory.
