Former President Donald Trump is defending his rally at Madison Square Garden in New York that was criticized for hate-filled and racist rhetoric.
"The love in that room was breathtaking ... politicians that have been doing this for a long time, 30 and 40 years, said that there's never been an event so beautiful. It was like a lovefest," Trump said from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday.
About 20,000 thousand people attended the event, enthusiastically showing their support for Trump. However, much of their support was overshadowed by speakers who made crude remarks.
"I don't know if you guys know this but there's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah, I think it's called Puerto Rico," Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe joked at the beginning of the rally.
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The comment quickly went viral, especially among those in the Puerto Rican community. Several influential Puerto Rican celebrities, including Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez, and Ricky Martin, expressed their support for Kamala Harris following the comment.
While Trump didn't comment on Hinchcliffe's joke during his speech on Tuesday, he reportedly told ABC that he doesn't know the comedian and didn't hear the remarks.
The joke about Puerto Rico was not the only comment criticized at Trump's rally. Rudy Giuliani claimed Palestinians are taught to kill by age 2, while others described Harris as the "devil" and the "Antichrist."
