Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance, the GOP vice presidential nominee running alongside former President Donald Trump, is downplaying racist “jokes” by a performer at a recent Trump rally, scoffing at the idea that the bigoted remarks reflect poorly on the campaign one week out from Election Day.
In a recent interview with an NBC News reporter, Vance dubiously claimed that he hadn’t “seen the joke” in question — but said that he’s “so over” complaints about the comedy set, which was performed by right-wing comic Tony Hinchcliffe at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
“We’re not going to restore the greatness of American civilization if we get offended at every little thing,” Vance said. “Let’s have a sense of humor and let’s have a little fun.”
“A comedian told a joke, and I don’t think that’s news worth making,” he added.
During Hinchcliff’s set, he rattled off a series of bigoted statements against Black people, Jews, and Palestinians, as well as Latinx people and immigrants.
He mocked Latinx immigrants, for example, by using crass terms to claim that they don’t use birth control. Many commentators noted that the joke invoked the “great replacement theory,” a white nationalist conspiracy theory that falsely alleges that immigrants are “invading” America to “replace” white people.
Hinchcliffe garnered the most criticism, however, for his remarks deriding Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”
After criticism of that joke went viral on social media, Hinchcliffe responded by using an insult relating to menstruation to imply that people were too sensitive for his brand of humor, prompting a response from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), who is Puerto Rican.
“You’re opening for Trump by calling Puerto Rico a floating pile of garbage. 4,000+ Puerto Ricans died under him,” Ocasio-Cortez said on the social media site X, referring to Trump’s disastrous response to Hurricane Maria in 2017.
Despite Vance’s flippant attitude toward Hinchcliffe’s comedy set, the Trump campaign has been trying to distance itself from the performance, with a campaign staffer immediately saying that the joke about Puerto Rico “does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
However, the campaign clearly knew about the racist joke beforehand, as it had been entered into the teleprompter for Hinchcliffe to read from. The campaign had also rejected other jokes Hinchcliffe had prepared, including one that involved calling Democratic nominee for president Kamala Harris a misogynistic slur.
Despite Vance’s demand that Americans develop thicker skin, Trump is known for becoming enraged by jokes at his expense — perhaps most infamously in 2011, when, during the White House correspondents dinner, then-President Barack Obama made jokes highlighting the absurdity of Trump’s false birtherism claims.
“[Trump] was pissed off like I’d never seen him before. Just beside himself with fury,” former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) recounted in a book he wrote.
The fallout from the weekend Trump rally could potentially shift the election toward Harris, as millions of people with Puerto Rican backgrounds — including in some key swing states — may turn away from the Republican candidate for president. Indeed, Trump himself made many disparaging comments about Latinx people during the event, including stating that the country had been “invaded and conquered” by “vicious and bloodthirsty criminals” — contradicting evidence demonstrating that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than citizens born in the U.S. are.
Several news reports quoting Puerto Rican voters living in the mainland U.S. demonstrated the challenges the Trump campaign has created for itself in the final week of the race.
“We cannot continue to stand back and allow for anyone to come and publicly disrespect us, completely as an island, as a people, and as a community,” Chicago resident Marisol Padilla told the ABC News affiliate station in the city.
“Even if [Hinchcliffe ] was joking — you don’t joke like that,” Pennsylvania resident Ivonne Torres Miranda, an independent voter who is unsure who she is voting for, told the BBC.
“I’m not laughing,” said Mayor Eddie Moran of Reading, Pennsylvania, who was born in Puerto Rico.
In Pennsylvania alone, residents of Puerto Rican descent make up about 3.7 percent of the population. In a race that might be decided by less than a single percentage point, and with that state’s 19 Electoral College votes up for grabs, even a small number of voters dropping Trump in favor of Harris could sway the entire presidential election.