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Pro-Trump comedian who told Puerto Rico joke at Madison Square Garden draws criticism from AOC, others

Pro-Trump comedian who told Puerto Rico joke at Madison Square Garden draws criticism from AOC, others

Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe sparked bipartisan backlash by cracking a joke about Puerto Rico while speaking at the Trump rally held on Sunday at Madison Square Garden. “I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the … ocean right now.” Hinchcliffe said. “I think it’s called Puerto Rico.” The Trump campaign swiftly distanced itself from the joke. “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez noted in a statement, according to reports. Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York addressed Hinchcliffe’s joke during a Twitch stream with Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. “Who is that jackwad?” Walz asked in response to the clip. TRUMP, POWERHOUSE GUESTS ROCK PACKED MSG WITH HISTORIC RALLY Ocasio-Cortez, who noted that her family is from Puerto Rico and that she’s Puerto Rican, took issue with the comedian’s joke. “That’s just what they think about you. It’s what they think about anyone who makes less money than them. It’s what they think about the people who serve them food in a restaurant. It’s what they think about the people who, who fold their clothes in a store,” the Democrat from New York asserted. The lawmaker’s “mother was born and raised in Puerto Rico,” according to her congressional website. Hinchcliffe responded to the clip of Ocasio-Cortez and Walz, declaring in a post on X that he loves and vacations in Puerto Rico.  “These people have no sense of humor. Wild that a vice presidential candidate would take time out of his ‘busy schedule’ to analyze a joke taken out of context to make it seem racist,” he wrote. “I love Puerto Rico and vacation there. I made fun of everyone… watch the whole set. I’m a comedian Tim… might be time to change your tampon.” TIM WALZ AND AOC PLAY MADDEN ON TWITCH IN ATTEMPT TO APPEAL TO YOUNG MALE VOTERS But Ocasio-Cortez fired back on X, scolding Hinchcliffe and accusing him of boosting neo-Nazis. “You’re opening for Trump by calling Puerto Rico a floating pile of garbage. 4,000+ Puerto Ricans died under him. This isn’t the comedy store. You’re using your set to boost neo-Nazis like MTG & stripping women’s rights to the Stone Age. Your ‘sense of humor’ doesn’t change that.” she tweeted. “And before people try to act like this is some PC overly sensitive nonsense, I’ve been to Kill Tony shows. I’m from the Bronx. I don’t give a s— about crude humor. But don’t pretend that your support for Trump is a joke. Own it. You doing a set to support him. That’s a choice,” she added in another post. The lawmaker accused the comedian of dishing out “red-meat racism.” “Can’t get over this dude telling someone else to change tampons when he’s the one sh—ing bricks in his Depends after realizing opening for a Trump rally and feeding red-meat racism alongside a throng of other bigots to a frothing crowd does, unironically, make you one of them,” she tweeted. “You don’t ‘love Puerto Rico.’ You like drinking piña coladas. There’s a difference,” Ocasio-Cortez added in another tweet. AOC FIRES BACK AT FETTERMAN, ACCUSES HIM OF ‘BLEAK DUNK ATTEMPT’ Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York also blasted the comedian. “As a Puerto Rican, I’m tempted to call Tony Hinchcliffe racist garbage, but doing so would be an insult to garbage. When casting their ballots at the voting booth, Latinos should never forget the racism that Donald Trump seems all too willing to platform,” the congressman tweeted. Republicans also criticized the comedian. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., tweeted, “This is not a joke. It’s completely classless & in poor taste. Puerto Rico is the crown jewel of the Caribbean & home to many of the most patriotic Americans I know. @TonyHinchcliffe clearly isn’t funny & definitely doesn’t reflect my values or those of the Republican Party.” Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, a Republican from New York, posted, “I’m proud to be Puerto Rican. My mom was born and raised in Puerto Rico. It’s a beautiful island with a rich culture and an integral part of the USA. The only thing that’s ‘garbage’ was a bad comedy set. Stay on message.”

Trump, Harris nearly tied in battleground Wisconsin 8 days from Election Day, poll finds

Trump, Harris nearly tied in battleground Wisconsin 8 days from Election Day, poll finds

Former President Trump and Vice President Harris are nearly tied in Wisconsin, a key battleground state, with just eight days until Election Day, according to a new poll. A USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll released Monday found Trump and Harris neck and neck in Wisconsin, 48% to 47%, respectively, from a statewide poll of 500 likely voters. The razor-thin results fell within the margin of error of 4.4 percentage points. Harris, however, leads Trump in Door County, Wisconsin, which has been a predictor of which candidate takes the White House. The poll of 300 likely voters in Door County found Harris leading Trump in that area 50% to 47%, which is within the margin of error of 5.7 percentage points.  Wisconsin is one of three Rust Belt states that voted for Trump in 2016, then flipped back to the Democrats in 2020. President Biden won the state by just 20,682 votes, or 0.7 points. BATTLEGROUND STATE OFFICIALS SAY FOREIGN ENEMIES USING MISINFORMATION TO ‘UNDERMINE’ DEMOCRATIC PROCESS In Wisconsin, which is defined by its White working-class population like other competitive Midwestern states, 58% of the state’s voters are White without a college degree, according to the Fox News Voter Analysis. That is 15 points higher than the national electorate. The USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll also found that in Wisconsin, Harris has a 14-point lead over Trump among women, 55% to 41%, respectively. The result flips to Trump’s favor among men, showing Trump ahead 18 percentage points over Harris, 56% to 38%, respectively. MILLIONS OF VOTERS HAVE ALREADY CAST BALLOTS FOR NOV. 5 ELECTION Wisconsin is one of the three so-called “Blue Wall” states – the others being Michigan and Pennsylvania – that make up seven swing states that will ultimately decide the election. Harris and Trump are aggressively competing in these states, which also include Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina. As of Monday morning, early voters in Wisconsin cast 850,163 ballots, whereas nationwide more than 41 million votes have already been cast in the election.  Fox News’ Rémy Numa and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

Fact-check: Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in New York City

Fact-check: Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in New York City

Former President Donald Trump hammered home an anti-immigration theme in his closing argument pitch to voters on October 27 at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. But before Trump spoke, the event made headlines for a series of racist jokes by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe. He called Puerto Rico an “island of garbage” and disparaged Black Americans, Latinos and Jewish people. Democrats and at least two Florida Republicans, including Senator Rick Scott, swiftly condemned Hinchcliffe’s remarks about Puerto Rico. “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” Danielle Alvarez, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign said in a statement after the rally addressing the comedian’s comment about Puerto Rico. At the rally, Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, said he presided over the most secure border in United States history (he did not), that the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not deliver hurricane relief because the government spent its money bringing immigrants into the country illegally (it did not) and that foreign nations were emptying their prisons and sending convicts to the US (they are not). A gaggle of speakers preceded Trump, including Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance, Trump’s sons Eric and Don Jr, Trump’s wife, Melania, his daughter-in-law and Republican National Committee co-Chair Lara Trump, US House Speaker Mike Johnson, Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White, professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, entrepreneur Elon Musk and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Carlson riffed about Harris’s potential victory marking “the first Samoan, Malaysian, low-IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president”. Harris identifies as a Black woman of multicultural descent; her mother was born in India and her father was born in Jamaica. Trump nevertheless said the Republican Party he leads “has really become the party of inclusion, and there’s something very nice about that”. Trump’s choice of New York City as a rally site may have challenged political logic; New York, as a state, has voted for the Democratic candidate for president for decades, though Madison Square Garden has hosted major political events for more than a century. Appearing in New York City also placed Trump in the back yard of officials whom he frequently has criticised, including District Attorney Alvin Bragg who obtained a 34-count felony conviction against Trump for falsifying business records. Trump supporters gather with banners outside Madison Square Garden ahead of Donald Trump’s rally in New York [Selcuk Acar /Anadolu via Getty Images] Here are eight claims we fact-checked, leading with four about immigration. Immigration Trump said Harris “has imported criminal migrants from prisons and jails, insane asylums and mental institutions from all around the world, from Venezuela to the Congo”. Pants on Fire! There is no evidence that countries are emptying their prisons – or mental institutions – and sending people to illegally migrate to the US. Immigration officials arrested about 108,000 non-citizens with criminal convictions (whether in the US or abroad) from fiscal years 2021 to 2024, federal data shows. That accounts for people stopped at and between ports of entry. Not everyone was let in. Trump said: “I will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.” Legal experts told PolitiFact that Trump does not have the authority to use the law to carry out mass deportations and that invoking it would lead to legal challenges. The Alien Enemies Act lets a president quickly deport noncitizens without due process if they are from a country at war with the US. The law has been used only three times in US history, all during wartime. The last time the act was invoked was during World War II, and it was used to place non-citizens from Japan, Germany and Italy in internment camps. Trump said: “Think of this: 325,000 children are missing, dead, sex slaves, or slaves. They came through the open border and they’re gone.” This is a distortion of federal data about migrant children. An August federal oversight report about unaccompanied minors released from federal government custody said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had not served a “Notice to Appear” to more than 291,000 unaccompanied minors, as of May. (A notice to appear is a charging document authorities issue and file in immigration court to start removal proceedings.) The report said unaccompanied children “who do not appear for court are considered at higher risk for trafficking, exploitation, or forced labour”. The report does not state how many children have actually been trafficked. The report led Republican legislators and conservative news outlets to say that ICE “lost” the children or that they are “missing”. But that is not what it said. Trump said Harris “vowed to abolish” US Immigration and Customs Enforcement False. As a US senator in 2018, Kamala Harris criticised the Trump administration’s immigration policies, including a policy that led to family separations at the border. In that context, Harris said US ICE’s function should be re-examined and that “we need to probably even think about starting from scratch.” But Harris did not say there should not be immigration enforcement. In 2018, Harris also said ICE had a role and should exist. Economy Trump said Harris “cast the deciding vote that launched the worst inflation in the history of our country. She cost the typical American family over $3,000 in a short period, but over $30,000 over the last three years”. Mostly False. Harris cast the tie-breaking vote on the motion to proceed to a final Senate vote on the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, a coronavirus pandemic relief bill. An ideologically diverse cross-section of economists agrees that the American Rescue Plan added a couple of percentage points to inflation, but did not cause the wider spike. The primary causes, they say, were supply chain disruptions from the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Year-over-year inflation peaked in 2022 at about 9 percent. That made it the worst annual rate in 40 years, but not the worst in US history. The $28,000 increase is a credible estimate of the extra amount that households have paid for

Japan PM Ishiba says will stay in office despite election setback

Japan PM Ishiba says will stay in office despite election setback

Sunday’s snap election was the governing party’s worst result in 15 years, exit polls and media showed. Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has pledged to stay in office despite receiving a major blow in Sunday’s snap election he called himself to shore up more support for his party. Ishiba told reporters on Monday he would not allow a “political vacuum” to occur after Japan’s ruling coalition lost its parliamentary majority in a significant defeat for his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has governed the country almost continuously since 1955. Ishiba, 67, called the vote days after assuming office on October 1. But voters, angry at a funding scandal, punished the LDP by reducing it to 191 seats, down from 259 in the 465-member lower house of parliament. LDP’s coalition partner Komeito won 24 seats. The snap election was the governing coalition’s worst result in 15 years, exit polls and results reported by national broadcaster NHK and other media showed. The yen hit a three-month low as results came out. Despite this, Ishiba said: “I want to fulfill my duty by protecting people’s lives, protecting Japan.” “People’s suspicion, mistrust and anger” at the slush fund scandal – which saw LDP figures pocket money from fundraising events and which helped sink his predecessor Fumio Kishida – factored in the election result, Ishiba said. “I will enact fundamental reform regarding the issue of money and politics,” Ishiba stressed, repeating that voters had delivered a “severe judgement” on the party. Japanese media had earlier speculated that if LDP lost the majority, Ishiba could quit, becoming the nation’s shortest-serving prime minister since the end of World War II. The LDP’s election committee chief, former Premier Junichiro Koizumi’s son Shinjiro Koizumi, resigned on Monday. What next? Ishiba is expected to seek to head a minority government, with the divided opposition seen as likely incapable of forming a coalition of their own, analysts said. But the prime minister on Monday said he was not considering a broader coalition “at this point”. As mandated by the constitution, the parties now have 30 days to figure out a grouping that can govern. The opposition, under former premier Yoshihiko Noda’s Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), made significant gains, which raised its projected seat tally to 148 from 96 at the last election. “Voters chose which party would be the best fit to push for political reforms,” Noda said late on Sunday, adding that the “LDP-Komeito administration cannot continue”. Japan’s government and governing coalition officials are planning to convene a special parliament session to select the prime minister on November 11, Kyodo News reported on Monday, quoting multiple unnamed sources. “Lawmakers aligned with [former Prime Minister Shinzo] Abe were cold-shouldered under Ishiba, so they could potentially pounce on the opportunity to take their revenge,” Yu Uchiyama, political science professor at the University of Tokyo, told the AFP news agency. “But at the same time, with the number of LDP seats reduced so much, they might take the high road and support Ishiba for now, thinking it’s not the time for infighting,” he added. Adblock test (Why?)

Report from scene of major Israeli attack on north Gaza homes

Report from scene of major Israeli attack on north Gaza homes

NewsFeed Al Jazeera’s Moath al-Kahlout has been to the site of a major Israeli air attack on homes in north Gaza’s Beit Lahiya, where dozens of people were killed and left buried under rubble. Published On 28 Oct 202428 Oct 2024 Adblock test (Why?)