Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) said Americans need to “take a joke” after backlash over a joke from a comedian at the Madison Square Garden rally.
On Sunday, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, speaking several speakers before former President Donald Trump and Vance, joked that Puerto Rico was a “floating pile of garbage.” The quip was met with backlash from Democrats and some Republicans, including Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), whose state hosts a sizable Puerto Rican population.
When asked about the joke at a Monday campaign event, Vance said that he hadn’t heard the joke, but that it was surely being blown out of proportion.
“Now I didn’t, I’ve heard about the joke, but I haven’t actually seen the joke that you mentioned, but I think that it’s telling that Kamala Harris’s closing message is essentially that all of Donald Trump’s voters are Nazis, and you should get really p****d off about a comedian telling a joke,” he said. “That is not the message of a winning campaign, and most importantly, it’s not the message of a person who fit to be the President of the United States of America.”
“And my own view on this is… Again, I haven’t seen the joke,” Vance continued. “Maybe, maybe it’s a stupid, racist joke, because you said, maybe it’s not. I haven’t seen it. I’m not going to comment on the specifics of the joke, but I think that we have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America. I’m just so over it.”
He then contrasted the situation with a joke portrayed by some as offensive towards Mexicans from Mexican American comedian George Lopez at a Vice President Kamala Harris rally. The comedian joked that a wall on the United States-Mexico border would have to be constructed quickly because otherwise, Mexicans would steal the building material. Vance said he was shown the joke and urged to blow it up to show the alleged hypocrisy of the Harris campaign, which he declined.
“And my response was, ‘Can we all just take a chill pill and take a joke from time to time?’ This is ridiculous,” he said to cheers.
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“Our country was built by frontiersmen who conquered the wilderness,” Vance continued. “We are not going… to restore the greatness of American civilization if we get offended at every little thing. Let’s have a sense of humor and let’s have a little fun. And let’s go win in eight days, God bless you.”
Hinchcliffe defended his joke as typical of his comedy routine, adding that he likes Puerto Rico and vacations there. Democrats held up the joke as showing that Trump’s MSG rally was hateful, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) declaring that it was a “mini Jan. 6” rally.
The Trump campaign and Republicans have largely distanced themselves from the joke.