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Trump rally comedian doubles down on Puerto Rico joke after backlash: 'I apologize to absolutely nobody'
By Kristine Parks
Published November 12, 2024
The pro-Trump comedian who faced backlash for his joke about Puerto Rico during a campaign rally for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump last month said he wouldn't apologize for his jokes and lashed out at the media for trying to "slander" him.
Tony Hinchcliffe addressed the uproar over his comedy set on the latest episode of his "Kill Tony" podcast, which was released Monday night and recorded the day after Trump's Madison Square Garden rally on October 27.
"Last night I gave a speech, I don’t know if you heard about this," Hinchcliffe quipped to the live audience. "It was a speech about free speech, believe it or not. I am currently under attack. I am the news. I referenced Puerto Rico, which currently has a landfill problem in which all of their landfills are filled to the brim. I guess I am the only person that knew about this, unfortunately. With that said, I just want to say that I love Puerto Ricans, they’re very smart people — they’re smart, they’re street smart, they’re smart enough to know when they’re being used as political fodder. Right now that is happening."
"I apologize to absolutely nobody," he continued. "Not to the Puerto Ricans, not to the Whites, not to the Blacks, not to the Palestinians, not to the Jews, and not to my own mother, who I made fun of during the set. Nobody clipped that. No headlines about me making fun of my own mother."
The pro-Trump comedian who faced backlash for his joke about Puerto Rico during a campaign rally for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump last month said he wouldn't apologize for his jokes. (REUTERS/Andrew Kelly)
"Perhaps that venue at that time wasn’t the best f—ing place to do this set at. But in any matter, to the mainstream media and to anybody trying to slander me online: That’s what I do, I go hard and that’s never going to change," he concluded.
Hinchcliffe made various racial jokes at the MSG rally, but his joke calling Puerto Rico "a floating island of garbage" attracted intense negative attention, drawing criticism from liberal media hosts, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign and President Biden.
Hinchcliffe previously hit back at Ocasio-Cortez and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris' running mate, after they berated him for insulting Puerto Ricans.
"These people have no sense of humor," the comedian wrote on X last month. "Wild that a vice presidential candidate would take time out of his ‘busy schedule’ to analyze a joke taken out of context to make it seem racist," he wrote. "I love Puerto Rico and vacation there. I made fun of everyone… watch the whole set. I'm a comedian Tim… might be time to change your tampon."
WHITE HOUSE DENIES THAT BIDEN REFERRED TO TRUMP SUPPORTERS AS ‘GARBAGE’
President Biden and comedian Tony Hinchcliffe (Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images, left, Andrew Kelly/Reuters, right.)
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Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann even predicted that Hinchcliffe's joke could swing the election in Harris' favor.
"Congrats on electing the VP. Know how many Puerto Ricans vote in the swing states?" Olbermann mocked in a post on X on October 27.
The Trump campaign quickly distanced itself from the joke at the time saying, "This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign."
Despite the backlash, Trump still won several Florida counties with the state's largest concentration of Puerto Ricans, which he lost in both 2020 and 2016.
President-elect Donald Trump celebrating beating Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race early Wednesday morning. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Osceola County, which is home to the largest concentration of Puerto Ricans in the Sunshine State based on census data, voted in favor of Trump after voting Democrat in the last two elections in which Trump ran. Meanwhile, Miami-Dade and Hillsborough counties, two other districts with a significant population of Puerto Ricans that Trump lost in 2020 and 2016, also went for Trump this time around.
Fox News' Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.
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