Former President Donald Trump came to the defense of comedian Tony Hinchcliffe while reiterating that he has not heard his joke about Puerto Rico at the former president’s Madison Square Garden rally last weekend, specifically when Hinchcliffe called the Caribbean island a “floating island of garbage.”
Calling in to Fox and Friends, Trump addressed the joke that has sparked condemnation from both sides of the aisle, directing blame at Democrats who “stained” his rally by focusing on a joke from a comedian.
“Well, I guess somebody put on a comedian and he joked. He was a comedian. He joked. He mentioned Puerto Rico. And all of a sudden the Democrats. … So let me just tell, so, they come up, and a comedian put in early in the show, as a filler in all fairness. I guess he said some joke, I haven’t heard the joke, but he said some joke, and he mentioned Puerto Rico. All of a sudden they come out with something about Puerto Rico,” he said.
“And they sort of stained it [the rally] a little bit by a comedian that, I have no idea who he is. He’s a man that was put there by very good people and well-meaning people. He mentioned Puerto Rico and they made it like a big deal,” Trump added.
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Trump’s defense of Hinchcliffe follows an equivocation earlier this week, when he simply claimed he did not hear Hinchcliffe’s remarks and that he didn’t know who he was or who invited him to the event. However, the Trump campaign said at the time that the comedian’s comments don’t reflect the views of the former president or the campaign.
Several prominent Republicans distanced themselves from Hinchcliffe’s remark about Puerto Ricans, including Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL).
