Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) slammed Donald Trump’s campaign for attempting to distance itself from some of the extreme rhetoric spewed at the Republican nominee’s New York City rally and said “they’re just realizing that they might have made a big error by saying out loud what they’re thinking.”
“This was a hate rally,” Ocasio-Cortez said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday. “I think it’s very important for people to understand that these are mini Jan. 6 rallies.”
She said Trump’s rallies are intended to “prime an electorate into rejecting the results of an election if it doesn’t go the way that they want.”
“And that’s what they’re doing when they are inciting violence and hatred against Latinos, against black Americans, against Americans who don’t have children,” she said.
The rally was filled with anti-immigrant bigotry from Trump and other speakers, bringing the trademark fearmongering of his campaign to a fever pitch nearly four years after his supporters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol after consuming his lies about a stolen election.
Ocasio-Cortez said the Trump campaign is scrambling to try to “blame this rhetoric on a so-called comedian” after Sunday’s rally.
Right-wing comedian Tony Hinchcliffe delivered a series of deeply racist lines ahead of Trump’s appearance at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, including one where he called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”
A Trump campaign adviser later said that joke “does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
Ocasio-Cortez dismissed the excuse. “This is not a comedian. This is the Trump campaign. They invited this rhetoric on their stage for a reason.”
“It was vetted, and they knew exactly who was going to say what before they went on,” she added, accusing the Republican’s campaign of backtracking because tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans live in swing states and swing seat districts of the House.
“They’re just realizing that they might have made a big error by saying out loud what they’re thinking,” she said.
The Trump campaign continued its cleanup on Monday morning, with spokesperson Karoline Leavitt joining “Fox & Friends” to criticize the media for picking up one “joke in poor taste.” The racist joke was criticized even by some of Trump’s GOP allies in Congress.
Hinchcliffe had defended himself against backlash on social media Sunday night, insisting the joke wasn’t racist and accusing Democrats of having no sense of humor. “I love Puerto Rico and vacation there. I made fun of everyone,” he posted.
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Ocasio-Cortez responded to that tweet to advise, “you don’t ‘love Puerto Rico.’ You like drinking piña coladas. There’s a difference.”