Trump says it was ‘my honor to be involved’ in the controversial rally at Madison Square Garden

CNN
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Donald Trump on Tuesday he defended his controversial meeting at Madison Square Gardentelling supporters that the event was ‘an absolute lovefest’ and that it was ‘my honor to be involved’.

The former president’s comments come amid backlash over disparaging and divisive comments at his Sunday event in New York City, which included a comedian describing Puerto Rico as a “floating island of trash.” The allies expressed concern that the comments could have political ramifications, especially given the growing influence of Puerto Ricans in the battleground states, where about half a million people live in Pennsylvania alone. But Trump did not directly address the criticism of that comment on Tuesday.

“I don’t think anyone has ever seen anything like what happened recently at Madison Square Garden,” Trump told a crowd of supporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, criticizing his rally for the first time. . “The love in that room – it took my breath away. And you could have filled it many times with people who couldn’t get in.”

He claimed that experienced politicians told him that ‘there had never been such a wonderful event’.

“It was like a love fest, an absolute love fest, and it was my honor to be involved,” he said.

CNN reported this on Monday that several Trump allies expressed dismay at the language used by speakers at the event, particularly the comment from Puerto Rico, which set the tone for an evening of disparaging and divisive comments. The violent and vulgar rhetoric at the meeting led to finger-pointing within the former president’s inner circle and deep concern that his message was once again overshadowed by controversy.

Trump mocked Democrats on Tuesday for drawing parallels between his rally and a Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in 1939. Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said before the rally that Trump’s campaign ‘knows exactly what they’ are doing there.”

“They started saying, ‘Well, in 1939 the Nazis used Madison Square Garden,’” Trump said. “What a terrible thing to say, right? Because you know, they used Madison Square Garden a lot. Many people have used it. But no one has ever had an audience like that. And I tell you what, right now no one has ever had love like that. That was love in the room, and it was love for our country.”

The comments about Puerto Rico by Tony Hinchcliffe, a comedian and podcast host, were quickly condemned by Harris’ campaign, which used them in an ad portraying Trump as having “abandoned” the US territory in the aftermath of the US election . Hurricane Maria in 2017. Trump’s own campaign distanced the former president from the comment in a statement on Sunday evening.

“These are fellow citizens he’s talking about,” former President Barack Obama said Monday at a rally for Harris. “Here in Philadelphia, they’re your neighbors. They’re your friends, they’re your colleagues. Their children go to school with your children. These are Americans.”

Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny signaled support for Harris shortly after Hinchcliffe’s comments, who shared a clip on social media of the vice president’s plans for the island.

Republicans have tried to brush off the backlash. Trump said Tuesday that he had not heard Hinchcliffe’s comments and that he did not know who the comedian was, despite Hinchcliffe kicking off the high-profile campaign rally.

‘I don’t know him; someone put it there. I don’t know who he is,” Trump told ABC News.

Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, on Monday described criticism of the Puerto Rico joke as a “false outrage cycle.”

“A comedian told a joke, and I don’t think that’s news worth making. I think the news is that Americans can’t afford their groceries because Kamala Harris has been a terrible vice president,” Vance said at an event in Racine, Wisconsin.

Trump’s comments Tuesday, in which he downplayed the controversy over his rally at Madison Square Garden, came during a campaign event in which he criticized Harris and the president Joe Biden for their government’s handling of the economy and border security.

“We’re going to fight like hell for the next seven days,” Trump said as the crowd chanted “fight,” the word he shouted moments after surviving a disaster. assassination attempt in Pennsylvania in July.

CNN’s Kristen Holmes, Steve Contorno, Kit Maher, Priscilla Alvarez and Jack Forrest contributed to this report.