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| - The speaker, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, said his speech was a stand-up comedy set and the comment was meant as a joke.
On Oct. 27, 2024, former U.S. President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, held a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Even before Trump took the stage, his Democratic opponent began expressing concerns about the content of the speeches.
The official X page of Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign, Kamala HQ, posted during the rally that one of the speakers had called Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, a "floating island of garbage."
The remark, which many thought was insensitive at best (including some Republicans), garnered immediate controversy. As one example, during a livestream with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, simply asked, "Who is that jackwad?" upon seeing the clip (timecode 1:09:20).
The speaker in question was comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, best known for his work writing on "Comedy Central Roast" and his podcast, "Kill Tony." Hinchcliffe responded to Walz's criticism on X, writing that the joke was "taken out of context to make it seem racist," and that he "made fun of everyone" during the set.
Here is a video, courtesy of C-SPAN, of Hinchcliffe's full set, followed by a transcript of the portion in which he mentioned Puerto Rico:
"… Free speech is under attack, people. I host a show, and each week I get updates what words we're allowed to use and not use anymore. It's happening right now, the past few years. It's a real thing. You used to be able to tell people to Google stuff. My mom's a boomer in the state of Ohio, and there's no convincing her of anything. She's eating the cats. She's eating the dogs. They're eating the pets up there.
It is absolutely wild times. It really, really is. There's a lot going on, like, I don't know if you guys know this, but there's a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it's called Puerto Rico?
[The audience reacts audibly.]
OK, all right, OK, we're getting there. You know, normally I don't follow the national anthem, everybody. This isn't exactly a perfect comedy setup …"
According to The New York Times, the second part of Hinchcliffe's statement (that he made fun of everyone) was mostly true — Hinchcliffe made other inflammatory comments about Latino, Black, Palestinian and Jewish people.
In an email statement to Snopes, Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said Hinchcliffe's joke did not "reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign."
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