The rally in New York was a true celebration of love: Trump

Urged by some allies to apologize for racist remarks made by speakers at his weekend rally, Donald Trump took the opposite approach on Tuesday, saying it was an “honor” to attend such an event and calling the event a “love festival” – the same term he used to to describe the January 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol.

Trump gathered supporters and reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort two days after a massive rally at Madison Square Garden in which various speakers made a number of vulgar remarks, including an appearance by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe in which he joked that Puerto Rico was “floating island of garbage.” Some of Trump’s top Republican allies condemned the remarks, and his campaign took the rare step of publicly distancing itself from Hinchcliffe’s joke, though not from the rest of the comments.

But given the opportunity to apologize at multiple events and interviews Tuesday, Trump instead leaned in. Speaking from his Florida resort, he said there had “never been an event as beautiful” as his Sunday rally in his hometown of New York.

“Love in this room. It was breathtaking,” he said. “It was like a love fest, an absolute love fest. It was an honor to take part in it.”

He told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday night that he knew nothing about Hinchcliffe, but said, “I don’t imagine it would be a big deal.”

Just a week before Election Day, some Trump allies expressed concern that a rally that was intended to highlight the GOP presidential nominee’s closing message in grand New York style instead instead distracted from it and even burdened it, given the electoral importance of Puerto Ricans living in Pennsylvania and other key swing states.

“This is not the time for anyone to criticize Puerto Rico or Latinos,” former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, who challenged Trump for the GOP presidential nomination and later endorsed him, said in an interview on Fox News Channel.

Trump later held a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a city with a large Latino population, where he was joined by Puerto Rican shadow U.S. Senator Zoraida Buxo and defended the former president’s record.

“We need this man to be our commander in chief,” said Buxo, who cannot vote in the Senate because Puerto Rico is not a state. “He will make us feel safe and protect us.”

Still, there was anger in Allentown. Ivet Figueroa, 61, stood outside the rally holding a trash can with the words “Trash Trump” written on it.

Of the insult and Trump, she said: “The person who said it was vetted by him. So he allowed it to happen, so he has to take responsibility for what he said. Now it’s too late to apologize. I don’t want an apology, I want justice, and justice will come on November 5.”

The fallout from the Madison Square Garden event threatened to highlight voters’ concerns about Trump’s rhetoric and propensity for controversy in the final stages as both campaigns battled for votes. Speakers at the rally also made racist remarks about Latinos, Blacks, Jews and Palestinians, as well as sexist slurs directed at Trump’s Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In an interview with ABC News on Tuesday, Trump claimed not to know Hinchcliffe but stopped short of condemning what he said.

“I don’t know him. Someone put it there. I don’t know who he is,” Trump said, according to the network, insisting he had not heard Hinchcliffe’s comments. When asked what he thought of them, Trump “did not take the opportunity to condemn them, reiterating that he had not heard the comments,” ABC reported.

In an interview with Hannity, Trump said that people were trying to make a “big deal” out of the comedian’s performance when “it has nothing to do with the party, it has nothing to do with us.”

The comments sparked outrage among Puerto Rican leaders.

The archbishop of Puerto Rico called on Trump to disavow them, saying it was not enough for the campaign to say the joke did not reflect Trump’s views. The president of the Puerto Rican Republican Party called Hinchcliffe’s “poor attempt at comedy” “disgraceful, ignorant and completely reprehensible.”

In Pennsylvania, where Trump campaigned Tuesday night, the number of Latino eligible voters has nearly tripled since 2000. More than half of them were Puerto Rican voters.

Angelo Ortega, a longtime Allentown resident and former Republican who plans to vote for Harris, said he couldn’t believe what he heard about the Trump rally.

“I don’t know if my jaw dropped or I was just so annoyed, so angry. I didn’t know what to feel,” said Ortega, who was born in New York but whose father was from Puerto Rico. Ortega is campaigning for Harris and said he knows at least one Latino GOP voter who plans to switch from Trump to Harris as a result of Hinchcliffe’s comments.