Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin were among the high-profile artists who supported Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign on Sunday (October 27) after a speaker at a Donald Trump rally made a racist joke about Puerto Rico. All three boosted a video of the Democratic candidate pledging to do her best for the island nation's citizens after what CNN described as a Trump rally filled with “stormy anti-immigrant rhetoric [that] it ranks alongside the most blatant demagoguery by a major figure in any Western nation since World War II.”
Their support for Harris came after comedian/podcaster Tony Hinchcliffe ripped convicted felon Trump at a rally in New York's Madison Square Garden by racially saying, “There's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. . I think it's called Puerto Rico.”
In addition, Hinchcliffe — one of nearly 30 speakers who warmed up the crowd to twice impeach the former president. Trump — also made other racist and sexist jokes about Latinos (“they like to make babies … there's no leaving. They're not doing that. They're coming in, like they did in our country”) as well as racist slurs about Black “friends” with whom he “carved watermelons” and an anti-Semitic joke about how “Jews have a hard time throwing that paper away.”
According to reports, the attempts at humor did not go down well inside the hall, where they were met with tepid applause. And in an unusual apology from the Trump campaign, a senior adviser said in a statement afterward that “this joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” apparently in reference to the Puerto Rico joke. The Harris campaign referred to Hitchcliffe's set as “a vile racist rant against Latinos”.
The racist comment immediately emboldened the trio of Puerto Rican artists, with Bad Bunny reposting a video of Harris discussing the importance of the election to the US territory's citizens, reminding them of what Trump “did and didn't do. when Puerto Rico needed a caring and capable leader” after the nation was hit with devastating damage after Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. a new report revealed that the Trump administration blocked an investigation into why officials withheld $20 billion in relief from the hurricane from public relations after Maria.
In addition to Bad Bunny sharing the message with his 45 million Instagram followers, Martin also boosted Harris' video to his nearly 19 million followers on his Instagram Stories, adding the message “Remembering @kamalaharris,” as and Lopez, whose repost to her 250 million Instagram followers included links to Harris' social media as well as a clapping emoji. Martin also claimed that his X posts with similar content were being suppressed on the platform owned by Trump financial backer Elon Musk.
“Despacito” star and PR native Luis Fonsi reposted Hinchcliffe's video to his Stories with the message “Are you serious?”, along with a portion of Harris' video and a lengthy personal note responding to the rhetoric hatred. “I understand comedy, I'm a big fan of it,” he wrote. I love roasts, trust me I get it. BUT… this is far from comedy. Not now, not against my island [Puerto Rico flag emoji]my people Hell no!'
Fonsi said it's okay to have different opinions, but racism is not acceptable. “We are not okay with this constant hate. It is clear that these people have no respect for us and yet they want our vote,” Fonsi wrote. “I wrote it in English on purpose because yes we are Americans too.”
Hinchcliffe's shocking comments at the Trump rally, where CNN reported that Republican nominee Trump and his MAGA surrogates hurled “racist, vulgar attacks on Harris and the Democrats,” came nine days before Americans went to the polls and just shortly after Trump's former chief of staff. , retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, said the former reality star fit the “general definition of a fascist” and frequently praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It also comes as both Harris and Trump spend valuable time and money in the final hours of the campaign to win over voters in the critical state of Pennsylvania, home to nearly 500,000 Puerto Ricans, who represent the third-largest PR diaspora in the US.
While the quartet of born PR superstars did not specifically endorse Harris' campaign in their posts, the show of support for the Democrat who is the first woman and person of Asian descent to become president comes as both campaigns have been laser-focused on the effort to win over critical ballots, including black and Hispanic men.
