It is absolutely wild times. It really, really is. And, you know, there's a lot going on. Like, 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. [00:00:15] Yeah, I think it's called Puerto Rico. Okay. All right. Okay. We're getting there. Again, normally, I don't follow the national anthem. Everybody, The Trump campaign is attempting to distance [00:00:31] itself from the comedian. You just heard from Tony Hinchcliffe, who is also known as Kill Tony for his offensive and racist jokes during a rally in Madison Square Garden over the weekend. Now, as you just heard, he called Puerto Rico a floating pile of garbage. [00:00:49] But as you also just heard that audience of Trump supporters who go to this Trump rally clearly did not find it funny. And I choose to focus on that. That gives me a little bit of hope in this country and in the electorate. They clearly didn't enjoy it. But we do have more where that came from. [00:01:06] Yeah. And I focus on both. So look, it's super important to note that the audience groaned and they groaned so much that he made note of it over and over again. They did not enjoy the set. So you don't. [00:01:21] So do not say that everybody who went to that rally, you know, agrees with this guy and thinks along the same ways. And I get it. He's a comic, terrible so-called comedy. That was not a joke. That was just ha ha. Isn't it funny to make fun of Puerto Ricans or just to insult Puerto Ricans? [00:01:39] Where's the punchline? Is the punchline that they're dirty? Is that because garbage? Where's the punchline? So don't give me this garbage about oh, at one point there was some garbage bill in Puerto Rico, as if he knew that. And he's following Puerto Rican politics, and he was making [00:01:55] a super obscure joke about that. No, it was a very blunt instrument joke. It was dumb. But guys, whether you think it's fair or not fair. The stench of that joke and the other things that were said in that rally are going to stick to the Republicans. Just like I told you, the McDonald's stunt that he did [00:02:11] was a really good PR move, even though there was no substance behind it. He's against higher wages for McDonald's workers, he's against regulations that protect those workers, etc. But it was a good PR stunt and worked really well for him. This is the exact opposite. The audience might have grown, it might be a comic, but it's going [00:02:28] to be terrible for the Trump campaign. Which is why the Trump campaign is doing everything it can to distance themselves from what happened in Madison Square Garden. In fact, even Peter Navarro is coming out with some pretty harsh language against the comedian. [00:02:44] Hinchcliffe is irritated by the backlash he's getting. He thinks that people are humorless. In fact, he was pretty irritated with the audience at this rally. So let's take a look at more. Believe it or not, people, I welcome migrants to the United States of America with open arms. And by open arms, I mean like this. [00:03:09] It's wild. And these Latinos, they love making babies, too. Just know that. They do. They do. There's no pulling out. They don't do that. They come inside, just like they did to our country. [00:03:26] It's a cool black guy with a thing on his head. What the hell is that, a lampshade? Look at this guy. Oh my goodness. Wow. I'm just kidding. That's one of my buddies. He had a Halloween party last night. We had fun. [00:03:42] We carved watermelons together. It was awesome. You guys are. This is a groany little morning crowd, It's tough to follow this, audition for the next Commissioner. Gordon's over here. So it's really interesting because, you know, the Trump campaign alleges [00:04:00] that his set wasn't vetted ahead of time. That's probably true, but I mean, someone loaded. If those jokes were on a teleprompter, someone loaded on a teleprompter. Unclear if they did. But the other thing that I'll just mention is it's interesting [00:04:16] because there are two different campaigns here in this election, obviously, and they have two different approaches that I think are bad when it comes to vetting speeches and performers. So on the Republican end, you have the Trump campaign not doing its due diligence and not ensuring that the comedian has a set that's going [00:04:35] to anger even Trump supporters. But then on the Democratic side, you'll have a literal Democratic surrogate who wants to give a quick 5 to 10 minute speech at the convention and will, [00:04:50] like, allow the party to vet the speech. But she's Palestinian, so Palestinian surrogate. We can't allow her to speak because we can't risk it. Yeah. So, look, I get some of those jokes, right? And, and in a different context, someone would be fine. [00:05:06] The garbage joke was not a joke. The punchline there was, don't we all hate Puerto Ricans again? The crowd groaned there, and they groaned. I thought it exactly the right parts at the watermelon line, right? But they actually didn't groan on the immigration line. And I get it right. It's a little bit. [00:05:23] So that one, if you're a Democrat and you get super offended, I got it. And is this the right context for those kind of jokes? No. Right. But like the ones that barely jokes that just go, hey, don't we all hate these sets of people? I can't stand those. [00:05:38] And I think they're super counterproductive and terrible. But Anna is 100% right. Democrats are too safe and Republicans are too unsafe. And it hurts both campaigns. Exactly right. So, look, I'll tell you a funny one. [00:05:54] That's not that's like somewhere in the middle. But. So I was opening for Bernie one time, and I started attacking Hillary Clinton too much back in 2016. And when I started going off on Hillary too much, Bernie started coming out to to make sure that they got me off. [00:06:10] Okay. So he came from the stage and they started roaring and I was like, oh, I got you. Okay. So even Bernie plays it a little safe. Like actually a decent amount. Safe. Kamala Harris is on the. Okay. We're vetting everything. Every word. Everything has to be a talking point. [00:06:26] Remember, the speeches all have to be super boring and uninteresting. And then we bring out a super big celebrity, and everybody goes, oh, my God, it's Beyonce or Taylor Swift and everybody go back to the plan, etc.. And the Trump rallies like, don't we hate Puerto Ricans and black people? Right. And it's like, Jesus, man. [00:06:42] This is these are the options we have. But to me, the Rudy stuff about Palestinians was worse than any joke from a comic. We're going to get to that in a minute. But I got to make another point, because, listen, if you're a Democratic voter and you are drinking the Democratic Party's Kool-Aid on how offended you [00:07:01] should be about this comedian, I hear you. I found his jokes pretty gross and offensive, and I'm actually happy that the Trump campaign is distancing themselves because usually they don't do that. Yeah. That's rare. Yeah, that's a good point. For instance, Danielle Alvarez, a senior campaign adviser, told the Washington Post [00:07:18] point blank this joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign. As I mentioned earlier. Peter Navarro is like trashing the comedian and everything. But look, put that aside. I want to just quickly talk about the difference between rhetoric, which may be gross, which might direct hatred toward a group of people, [00:07:36] and actions which honestly lead to more devastation for Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico than anything else. We still have this antiquated 1920s law called the Jones Act, which basically [00:07:52] forces Puerto Rico to only accept imports. Because, remember, Puerto Rico is considered part of the United States, and the Jones Act states that, you know, any Products that are going from one American port to another [00:08:08] needs to be shipped by by a US ship. A US owned and made ship with a US crew. And look, this this law came about after World War One, and it had a lot to do with national security, right. Because you want to make sure, you know, things are going [00:08:24] from one American port to another. You know, it's secure, and you don't want a ship that was built by a potential adversary, that kind of thing. But what's what it's led to with Puerto Rico is inflated costs for energy. It actually complicated the hurricane relief efforts. [00:08:41] Now, the Biden administration did a quick one time waiver for Puerto Rico in order to help them recover from Hurricane Maria. But like, let's keep it real. Like, let's actually have a conversation about how both parties, Democrats and Republicans refuse to reform that law, which is [00:08:59] totally battering Puerto Rico as we speak. So that's super sensitive and correct. But in the context of an election that's about a week away. Republicans, if you don't get that when you call Puerto Rico garbage, that you're going to turn off all Puerto Rican voters. [00:09:15] No, but they do get it. That's why they're distancing themselves from the. No, no, no. The politicians get it. And they're and we're about to show you their reactions. Right. But for a lot of MAGA guys online, they're like super mad about people getting upset. They're like, it's just a comic. It's so it's no big deal. [00:09:33] No, it's no big deal to you. But if you're Puerto Rican and they call your island a piece of trash, you're not going to be happy about it. And the fact that you can't, like, if you can't understand that and how damaging that is, you're just not understanding politics because you think [00:09:49] everybody thinks like you, but they don't. But more importantly, I mean, think about how you would feel if, you know, some candidate running in another country. And I get that Puerto Rico is part of the United States, but imagine someone trashing our country like that and how I would be furious about it. [00:10:05] I mean, it's even easier than that if you're from Alabama. And I make fun of how stupid hillbillies from Alabama are, you're going to lose your mind. - That's true. - Exactly. And you should. That's super offensive. Right. So. But that's why I say always think about the shoe on the other foot. But the guy makes a joke. [00:10:21] A similar joke about Puerto Ricans and all the MAGA guys are like, what's the big deal? Tell me. I guarantee you, and I've done I do a hillbilly joke. You guys will all get super hurt and be like, oh, that's it. I'm not watching any liberal show anymore. They made fun of hillbillies and rednecks. [00:10:37] Oh, come on, come on, keep it real. Anyways, this is super damaging. That's why the Republicans are out going. No no no no no no no. So let's get to that. So Steve Doocy, pointed out how damaging this might be during a discussion on Fox and Friends. Let's take a look. Of all the comments, however, of the warm up acts, there was [00:10:55] a comic who made some offensive comments about Latinos and Puerto Ricans and African Americans and others, and he's already been denounced by Republicans And by the campaign. But unfortunately for the Trump campaign, the Harris campaign has denounced it [00:11:12] and mobilized influential Puerto Rican influencers like Bad Bunny, who's very big in the Puerto Rican community and the Latino community. He put out something on Instagram, and so did Ricky Martin with millions of followers. And he wrote, or he said, this is what they think of us. [00:11:31] Vote for Kamala Harris. And you also have Republicans like Rick Scott speaking out against it. This joke bombed for a reason. It's not funny and it's it's not true. Puerto Ricans are amazing people and amazing Americans. I've been to the island many times. It's a beautiful place everyone should visit. [00:11:47] I will always do whatever I can to help any Puerto Rican in Florida. Well, I'm sure you will. I mean, he's in Florida, and so there's a huge Puerto Rican population there. Everyone should visit. I will always do whatever I can to help Puerto Ricans in Florida or on the island. [00:12:03] And so, you know, you have a lot of pushback from Republican lawmakers and public figures, and I'm glad they're doing that. That is a departure from what we've seen in the past. And look for the Trump supporters on social media who are trying to provide cover for the comedian. [00:12:19] My sense is they're terrified that this is actually going to hurt him electorally. And so they're trying to justify it in some way. I don't think you need to do that. I think condemning it is actually a much better look than just accepting it or pretending like it was okay. Yeah. So by the way, Bad Bunny was going to endorse Kamala Harris anyway. [00:12:37] We knew that. We've been working on a Bad Bunny reference shirt on twitter.com for a couple of weeks, so it's not like people didn't know that, but it does animate people. I mean, I talked to Aida Rodriguez, who's a cohost of ours from time to time, a great comic, and she was livid about it. [00:12:54] She's originally from Puerto Rico, too, and it's not hard to figure out why for exactly the reasons that we talked about. And look, the Trump campaign is lazy because you're a week out from the election. This is a massive rally in Madison Square Garden that the entire press is going to pay attention to, and you didn't bother vetting the comic? [00:13:11] I know that is. And that is so symbolic of Trump's laziness when he was in office. You know, a lot of people are looking at it from rose colored glasses. I remember at the time it was a nightmare because he never prepared anything he didn't know. He's like, oh, no one knew healthcare was this complicated. [00:13:27] Yeah, brother, because you never did any of your homework. And so to the point, Anna, when I saw this guy, my first reaction was, I'm worried about his safety. The comics. Okay. And I'll tell you why. Because this is doing a lot of damage, Because he's in New York? [00:13:45] No, this is doing a lot of damage. And Trump. Look, the polling is so split, I have. I never say this. I have no idea who's going to win. And so if Trump loses and people on the right thinks that it's because of this guy, then I worry about him getting attacked by the right. [00:14:04] Like, what did you do? You cost us the election. I He said, don't do that. Don't do that. He's just a comic. Okay, but this this was not a good moment for the Republican campaign or for Trump. And just as I told you, the one thing that could cost him because as unsure as I am, my intuition is saying that Trump is leading. [00:14:22] But he juggles live hand grenades and this hand grenade just blew up on him. AOC, of course, was also very offended. She's Puerto Rican herself. As a legislator, I would insist that AOC look into reforming the Jones Act. [00:14:38] That's causing a lot of damage to Puerto Ricans as we speak. I'm sure she knows that, though, to be fair to her. Thanks for watching The Young Turks really appreciate it. Another way to show support is through YouTube memberships. You'll get to interact with us more. There's live chat emojis, badges. You've got emojis of me Anna John Jr. So those are super fun. [00:14:57] But you also get playback of our exclusive member only shows and specials right after they air. So all of that, all you got to do is click that join button right underneath the video. Thank you.