Two hours before Donald Trump was set to take the stage at Madison Square Garden in New York City, right-wing comedian Tony Hinchcliffe warmed up the crowd with a shockingly racist performance.
“Where are my proud Latinos at tonight?” Hinchcliffe asked the packed arena, eliciting scattered loud cheers. “You guys see what I mean? [The border’s] wide open. There’s so many of them.”
“These Latinos, they love making babies, too,” he added. “There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside just like they did to our country.”
The crowd groaned and cheered as Hinchcliffe continued, saying, “Republicans are the party with a good sense of humor.”
Hinchcliffe’s “joke” mirrors MAGA talking points invoking the “great replacement theory”: the white supremacist conspiracy theory that brown migrants, often at the behest of Jews, are “invading” America and Europe to “replace” white people.
Next, Hinchcliffe referenced how people are “eating the pets” in Springfield, Ohio, a reference to the Trump campaign’s racist lie about Haitian immigrants in the city.
When discussing Israel’s ongoing siege of Gaza, Hinchcliffe made an antisemitic joke about Jews being cheap and obsessed with money.
“Why is our money involved in these wars when it comes to Israel and Palestine?” he said. “We’re all thinking the same thing — settle your stuff already. Best out of three: rock, paper, scissors. You know, the Palestinians are going to throw rock every time. You also know the Jews have a hard time throwing that paper, you know?”
Hinchcliffe also referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean” and made a remark about Black people who “carved watermelons” instead of pumpkins for Halloween.
The Trump campaign distanced itself from the remarks Sunday night ― a rare move for a campaign that is almost always unapologetic. “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” said Danielle Alvarez, a campaign adviser.
During a livestream, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, reacted to Hinchcliffe’s comments about Puerto Rico shortly after he made them.
“Who’s that jackwad?” Walz asked, while Ocasio-Cortez, who is of Puerto Rican heritage, said, “When you have some a-hole calling Puerto Rico ‘floating garbage,’ know that that’s what they think about you.”
“It’s what they think about anyone who makes less money than them … I want every Puerto Rican in Philadelphia and Reading and across the country to see this clip,” she continued.
Hinchcliffe’s speech marks the near end of a presidential campaign that is arguably one of the most racist in American history.
“I’m just here to say that you guys are for the right candidate,” he told the crowd.
“I love you, New York,” Hinchcliffe added. “God bless New York. God bless America.”