US presidential election updates: Republicans in damage control after racist remarks from Puerto Rico at Trump rally | US elections 2024

The battle for Puerto Rican voters proved an unlikely campaign issue Sunday after Superstar Bad bunny supports Kamala Harris for the President, minutes after a speaker joined Donald Trump's The triumphalist New York rally made racist remarks about the US territory.

comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, Speaking before Trump at the Madison Square Garden rally, he said: “Right now there's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean, I think it's called Puerto Rico.”

Millions of mainland U.S. residents of Puerto Rican descent will vote on Nov. 5, and the Trump campaign quickly distanced itself from the joke. A number of Republicans also condemned the comments, including Rick Scott And Maria Elvira Salazar from Florida, the state with the largest population of Puerto Ricans in the mainland United States.

This is what else happened on Sunday:

Kamala Harris election news

• Harris made a pitch to Puerto Rican voters, addressing the need to spur economic growth and job creation. The U.S. territory struggled after multiple hurricanes knocked out the power grid and faced austerity measures after the local government filed for bankruptcy. Harris promised more effective use of redevelopment funds for the area and discussed her plans during a visit to a Puerto Rican restaurant in Pennsylvania. Of the swing state's eligible Latino voters, 580,000 are of Puerto Rican descent.

• Harris was in Philadelphia, the largest city in Pennsylvania, on her 14th trip to the state since Joe Biden withdrew from the race. The vice president spoke at a service in West Philadelphia and answered questions about student loan debt at a nearby hair salon.

• At a rally Sunday night, Harris told his supporters before the election, “No one can sit on the sidelines,” adding, “Make no mistake: We will win.” Harris also targeted younger voters in the crowd. “They are rightly impatient for change,” she said. “You who only knew the climate crisis… You who grew up with active shooter drills. You, who currently know fewer rights than your mothers and grandmothers.”

• Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff released statements on the sixth anniversary of a mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. “Six years ago today, a white supremacist carried out the deadliest attack on American Jews in our country’s history,” Emhoff wrote. “We honor the lives of those who died on that terrible day by continuing our fight against anti-Semitism and hatred in all its forms.”

• Gov. Tim Walz starred alongside Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez the American football video game Madden in a Twitch live stream and talk about the election. The unconventional campaign appearance came as the Harris-Walz campaign sought to win support among young male voters.

News about the Donald Trump election

• Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden was marked by racist remarks, crude insults and dangerous threats against immigrants. Businessman Grant Cardone said Harris “and her pimps will destroy our country,” while Tucker Carlson mocked Harris' racial background: “As the first low-IQ Samoan Malaysian and former California prosecutor ever elected president, she is unimpressive. Wrestler Hulk Hogan, Dr. Phil star Phil McGraw and a rare surprise appearance by Melania Trump also drew cheers from the 20,000 spectators.

• Trump promised to introduce a new tax credit for family caregivers and ratcheted up his anti-immigrant rhetoric. He said his administration would pursue the death penalty for migrants who kill Americans and that he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

• Trump's Vice President JD Vance avoided calling Russia an “enemy” in an interview on Meet the Press. Vance said Russian President Vladimir Putin is “clearly an adversary” but “we have to be smart in diplomacy.”

• Chinese state-affiliated hackers have intercepted audio recordings of telephone conversations of U.S. politicians, including an unnamed campaign adviser to Donald Trump, the Washington Post reported Sunday. Various media outlets reported Friday that Trump's campaign was made aware last week that the Republican presidential nominee and his running mate JD Vance were among a number of people inside and outside the government whose phone numbers were targeted through the infiltration of Verizon phone systems .

Elsewhere in the election campaign

• Harris' campaign has delayed accepting Joe Biden's offers to run for vice president, Axios reports. “President Biden wants to campaign for Vice President Harris in the last days before the election,” writes the medium. “Harris' campaign keeps responding: We'll get back to you,” three people familiar with the dynamic told Axios.” According to the White House, the president will cast his early vote in the presidential election on Monday.

• A number of major technology executives have spoken to Donald Trump in recent days, seeking to rekindle their ties with the ex-president in order to allow him to return to office threatens, CNN reports. In recent weeks, Apple's Tim Cook, Google's Sundar Pichai and Amazon's Andy Jassy have called out Trump. Earlier this summer, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg also reached out to Trump after he carried out an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

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