Former President Barack Obama ripped former President Donald Trump‘s Madison Square Garden rally during his own event in Philadelphia with John Legend and Bruce Springsteen.
“The warm-up speakers were trotting out and peddling the most racist, sexist, bigoted stereotypes,” Obama said Monday. “One guy called Puerto Rico ‘an island of garbage.’ These are fellow citizens he’s talking about. Here in Philadelphia, they are your neighbors. They are your friends. They are your co-workers. Their kids go to school with your kids.’”
Obama contended, “That is the reason why this election should not be close,” adding, “We have to reject the kind of politics of division and hatred that we saw represented.”
“Here’s a good rule: if somebody does not respect you, if somebody does not see you as fellow citizens with equal claims to opportunity, to the pursuit of happiness, to the American dream, you should not vote for them,” he said.
The Trump campaign has distanced itself from the joke made by Kill Tony on Sunday, with the comedian, himself, arguing that the quip, that Puerto Rico is a “floating island of garbage,” has been taken out of context.
But that did not stop Vice President Kamala Harris‘s campaign from turning the controversy into a political opportunity a week before the election as she was in Pennsylvania appealing to the Keystone State’s growing Latino community through Puerto Rican-centric proposals, including encouraging economic growth in the community and strengthening the island’s energy grid. There are approximately 472,000 Puerto Ricans living in Pennsylvania. President Joe Biden won the state in 2020 by 81,000 votes.
Harris herself led the criticism, asserting that Trump’s rally underscored that the former president “is focused and actually fixated on his grievances, on himself, and on dividing our country.”
“It is not in any way something that will strengthen the American family, the American worker,” she said before boarding Air Force Two in Maryland for Michigan. “It is — nothing about what he is saying that is actually going to support the aspirations, the dreams, and the ambitions of the American people.”
The Harris campaign has also produced a new ad from the joke and has emphasized endorsements from celebrity Puerto Ricans, such as Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez, and Ricky Martin.
During the rest of Obama’s address on Monday, scheduled before early voting in Pennsylvania ends on Tuesday, the former president made one of his strongest character arguments against Trump yet.
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“If you’re a Christian and you care deeply about the abortion issue, I understand that, but does that mean you’ll support somebody who seems to violate pretty much every precept of the 10 Commandments?” he said. “If you’re Muslim American and you’re upset about what’s happening in the Middle East, why would you put your faith in somebody who passed a Muslim ban and repeatedly suggested that somehow you were not part of our American community?”
Harris and Trump are polling within the margin of error for Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes, with Trump averaging 48.1% support to Harris’s 47.6%, according to RealClearPolitics.
