Photo: AFP
To the surprise of many observers, Donald Trump held a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden Sunday night. To the surprise of few, the event was packed to the rafters- and was tinted by controversy. One of the guests who went out to warm up the crowd, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, told some off-color jokes, including one joke calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.” The outrage was swift, but, according to US Representative Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY 11th), it is a mere kerfuffle. Malliotakis appeared on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program to explain why Hinchcliffe’s comedic styling is a distraction, but not a big enough distraction to stall Trump’s momentum.
“I think it was a bad decision to have a comedian at the event, just to be honest,” Malliotakis told Berman and Riedel. “It was a campaign faux pas, I guess, but President Trump’s speech was great and we have to remember… he gave an across-the-board tax cut to working and middle class families and he made this country affordable, and if people are tired of paying high prices for gas, their high utility bills, their food costs, and they want to be able to keep the American Dream of purchasing a home, they can’t do this under Kamala’s America.”
Malliotakis expanded on the reasons why she believes Trump’s message resonates loud enough to drown out the controversy. “I know many immigrants in my district that I’ve talked to, they’re very upset that the Biden-Harris policy right now is to give priority for court dates for hearings to people who crossed over the border and paid the drug cartels to get into the country, when you have a long line of immigrants who’ve been waiting. They’ve done everything right- they followed the rules, they got an attorney, they’ve been patiently waiting to get a court date, and they’re being further kicked down the line. That is wrong, and that is why I believe partially that he is surging among Hispanics and immigrants in our country.”
Photo Credit: Getty Images