Washington:
The day earlier than Election Day, 17-year-old lady Carmen Hernandez held a cardboard signal with the Puerto Rican flag exterior Trump’s rally in Studying, Pennsylvania, a metropolis that’s two-thirds Hispanic.
“What you name trash is our treasure,” the signal learn.
Whereas Trump’s marketing campaign had rapidly distanced itself from a comic book’s slam on Puerto Rico as a “floating island of rubbish,” Kamala Harris’ marketing campaign and different Democrats spent the final hours of the 2024 marketing campaign within the nation’s largest battleground state linking him to the joke.
Harris devoted a lot of her ultimate full day on the marketing campaign path to reaching Latino voters in Pennsylvania, a swing state that Democrats take into account a part of their “blue wall” within the Electoral School. She made a number of stops in what is called the 222 Hall, after the freeway that connects small cities and cities west and north of Philadelphia.
Greater than 315,000 people who find themselves 18 and older determine as Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania. And in a state the place small margins might determine who will get 19 votes within the Electoral School, that neighborhood may very well be essential for each Democrats, who’re searching for to carry onto voters who’ve lengthy favored their get together, and Republicans, who’re making an attempt to make additional inroads amongst this demographic.
Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke on the Madison Sq. Backyard rally value Trump the endorsement of widespread Puerto Rican artist Nicky Jam and earned Harris the help of celebrity Unhealthy Bunny, additionally from Puerto Rico.
Studying Mayor Eddie Moran, the primary Latino to carry the workplace in his metropolis’s 276-year historical past, mentioned he discovered it ironic that the following president “goes to doubtlessly be determined by Pennsylvania, however much more so by Latinos,” in communities like Studying, by “among the people that previously have been least revered to make that call.”
“He continues to insult us to coming knocking at our door right here in Studying, a neighborhood that’s 70% Latino. And of these, about 30,000 are Puerto Ricans,” Moran mentioned of Trump. “And but, right here he’s in a rally at this time. How insulting is that?”
Carmen Hernandez, {the teenager} holding the signal exterior Trump’s rally, mentioned that though she will’t vote Tuesday, her entire Puerto Rican household would vote for Harris.
“I am right here as a result of I wish to really feel a way of pleasure about defending and defending my island,” mentioned the highschool senior.
In Allentown, Harris touted her “longstanding dedication” to the island, whose residents are Americans however who do not get a say within the Electoral School. Fats Joe, a rapper with Puerto Rican heritage, spoke shortly earlier than Harris and urged voters to help the Democrat.
“The opposite day at Madison Sq. Backyard, that was no joke, women and gents. That was no joke,” Fats Joe mentioned. “Calling Puerto Rico the island of rubbish, my Latinos, the place is your pleasure?”
In Studying, a crowd gathered exterior a Puerto Rican restaurant referred to as Outdated San Juan Cafe to catch a glimpse of the vp. Flanked by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Harris requested diners in regards to the restaurant and how much meals she ought to order to go, choosing a bag of plantains, cassava and rice.
“I am so excited,” mentioned Claudia Guzman, 52, who had not voted. “I by no means thought the vp would come right here. Tomorrow I vote for Kamala. Girls are coming to energy.”
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, a Cuban American, spoke to Trump supporters in Spanish at a Studying rally on Monday, telling them that Spanish “sounds extra passionate” and asking for understanding as he jokingly mentioned he spoke Cuban.
“However the Boricuas will perceive,” he mentioned, referring to a time period used for Puerto Ricans, “and the Dominicans, too.”
Trump, he mentioned in Spanish, is “the one candidate who any more says you’ll be a precedence, not delivery jobs overseas, not sending factories to different international locations, not worrying in regards to the wants of individuals from different international locations,” he mentioned.
Rubio did not immediately deal with the comedian’s joke and neither did Trump. As an alternative, the previous president has hailed his relationship with the island, saying “we helped Puerto Rico greater than anyone.”
In September 2020, after criticism for a sluggish response to Hurricane Maria in 2017, Trump launched $13 billion in help to restore years-old hurricane injury. It took Trump two weeks to go to the island after the storm. He was criticized for an look the place he threw rolls of paper towels right into a crowd.
Emilio Feliciano, 43, dismissed the joke. Whereas his household is Puerto Rican, he mentioned he cared extra in regards to the financial system and nonetheless plans to vote for Trump on Tuesday.
“Boo hoo. We have got greater fish to fry. I’ll by no means cry over Puerto Rico being referred to as rubbish,” he mentioned on the Studying occasion. “Is the border going to be protected? Are you going to maintain crime down? That is what I care about.”
However Luis Colon, 45, a Puerto Rican who lives in Studying, walked into the identical rally whilst he deliberate to vote for Harris. He mentioned the feedback on the Trump rally have been a “shame.”
“I am simply moving into to see the stupidity, the nonsense. I do not vote for Trump; I do not root for Trump. Trump just isn’t going for the Latinos; he is towards us. Trump goes to throw us below the bus,” Colon mentioned.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)