JD Vance said he doesn't believe that Tony Hinchcliffe's joke about Puerto Rico will stop people from voting for the Republican presidential ticket.
"I've heard about the joke, I haven't actually seen the joke that you mentioned, but I think that it's telling that Kamala Harris' closing message is essentially that all of Donald Trump's voters are Nazis, and you should get really pissed off about a comedian telling a joke," Vance said at a rally in Wausau, Wisconsin.
"Maybe it's a stupid, racist joke, as you said, maybe it's not. I haven't seen it. I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the joke," he added. "But I think that we have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America. I'm just — I'm so over it."
"You know what I do when I think a joke is dumb or not funny? I don't laugh," he added. He might also have said he doesn't talk about it endlessly, as if it's newsworthy.
“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,” Vance said before ending the rally.
JD misses the point. Only rabid Democratic partisans are actually "offended" by the joke. The rest of the outrage is manufactured by Democrats to damage Trump. Some in the GOP have found it propitious to call for an apology from Trump, but why? He didn't say it, and the guy who did has nothing to do with his campaign.
Harris's vice presidential running mate Tim Walz compared the Madison Square Garden rally to a pro-Nazi rally that took place in the Garden in 1939. Hillary Clinton also cited the 1939 rally and compared Trump supporters to Nazis. Are they going to apologize for that wildly exaggerated condemnation of 20,000 American citizens?
And this was before Hinchcliffe told his "joke" about Puerto Rico being a "floating island of garbage." Harris and the Democrats leaped on that line like a starving pack of wolves and tried to make it appear that Trump said the tasteless remark, not Hinchcliffe.
Trump did not say it, and Hinchcliffe has no connection to the Trump campaign whatsoever. But that hasn't stopped Harris, the Democrats, and the media from grasping at the comment as if it were a lifeline thrown to a drowning man.
“This was just like a gift from the gods,” said Victor Martinez, an Allentown resident who owns the Spanish language radio station La Mega, “If we weren’t engaged before, we’re all paying attention now,” Martinez said.
Norberto Dominguez, a precinct captain with the local Democratic party in Allentown, claimed it is “spreading like wildfire through the community,” No "manufactured hysteria" there.
But many local Puerto Rican community members are unwilling to let go of the comments.
Roberto L. Lugo, President of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Puerto Rican Agenda, said the nonpartisan group will be releasing a letter, shared exclusively with POLITICO, condemning the comments and urging Pennsylvania Puerto Ricans not to vote for Trump. Lugo, who was born in Puerto Rico and now lives in Philadelphia, said Pennsylvania Puerto Ricans are “really disturbed” over the comments.
“I’m not a Republican, I’m not a Democrat, I’m independent,” Lugo said. “But at this point, it’s not about political, partisan issues. It is about the respect and honor our Puerto Ricans and Latinos deserved as citizens and legal residents of this country, that’s the issue.”
“We held Trump and his campaign responsible for this disgraceful act,” he added.
It wasn't an "act." It was a stupid joke. I'm with JD on this one. It may cost Trump a few votes from some Puerto Ricans, but everyone should just take a chill pill and get over it.
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