With the election closed, analysis begins on voter turnout, demographics, and how we got to where we are. As the results of the election settle, and the reality of Donald Trump being elected to return to the presidency, some recent campaign events can be looked on with a clearer light.
Perhaps most recently, Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke about Puerto Rico being an “island of garbage,” became the centerpiece of a national argument about what damage a joke can do, or not do in this case, on the political stage.
Hinchcliffe, comedian and host of the “Kill Tony” podcast performed a 12-minute comedy set on Oct. 27 where he made several jokes at the expense of American minority groups, though the main subject reported by news outlets has been his now infamous “island of garbage” joke.
His joke came off the back of a reference to ocean pollution. “There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” he said.
Hinchcliffe’s comments strayed into more hateful territory, specifically centered around the Latinx community, injecting crude sexual humor into commentary on the border crisis.
“I welcome migrants to the United States with open arms. And by open arms I mean this (Hinchcliffe holds his arms out and starts waving them ‘no’ followed by waving his arms for them to go back)… it’s wild,” he said. “These latinos love making babies too, just know that. They do, They do. There’s no pulling out. They just love to come inside.”
The Harris campaign highlighted its endorsements from Puerto Rican musicians Fat Joe and Bad Bunny, Puerto Rico’s top news outlet, El Nuevo Dia, dozens of republicans, and universities across the country, while their opponent across the aisle seemed largely unfazed.
The Trump campaign’s own endorsements seemed unscathed at the comedy set, beyond Trump himself responding to later comments by claiming he had never heard of Hinchcliffe, and was not in charge of putting him on stage. “I don’t know him, someone put him up there. I don’t know who he is,” Trump elaborated.
Multi-billionaire Elon Musk, TV personality Doctor Phil, and former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan remained focal points of the final days of the campaign, pre-election, and support for the Republican party continued forward, even as well established mainstream news outlets tried to parse through what it meant for our country that such comments can be made during a political rally.
Perhaps the most honest portrayal of current national discourse came from a CNN panel where conservative commentator Ryan Girdusky engaged Muslim journalist Mehdi Hasan in a heated argument around the “island of garbage” joke, leading to Girdusky to reply to Hasan’s support of Palestinians with “Well, I hope your beeper doesn’t go off.” The comment was in reference to Israel’s use of thousands of pager explosions targeting Hezbollah militants.
The live broadcast almost immediately cut to commercial, returning later with both Medhi and Ryan no longer present at the panel. Reportedly Medhi had stormed out and Ryan had been kicked off the show and banned from ever coming back followed by an apology from CNN.
For those not in the know, the beeper comment comes from the ‘Exploding Pager Incident’ in Lebanon a few months ago, where Israel had packed a shipment of pagers coming from China to Lebanon to be used by Hezbollah full of plastic explosives. After receiving the shipment, the pagers were distributed among Hezbollah agents, and then detonated during a funeral parade.
The criticism and jokes about U.S. territories like Puerto Rico call to mind the recent disaster in 2017, when Hurricane Maria made landfall and tore through the island for eight days, bringing 155 mph winds and almost 40 inches of rainfall. 80% of the territory’s total agriculture was lost to the storm and residents were left without power.
The Trump administration needed to be swift for damage control to avoid a humanitarian disaster. The Jones act was waived on Sept. 28 for ten days allowing for non-US vessels to transfer aid from US ports at the request of Puerto Rican governor Ricardo Rissolo.
The United States department of homeland security spokesperson Gregory Moore claimed that the waiver of the Jones act would have little effect, as adequate shipments already existed. The issue was the lacking port capacity within Puerto Rico.
Republic senator John Mccain fired back at the claim in a letter to Elaine Duke, the acting head of homeland security. Asking why they were against the waiver when Florida and the US Virgin Islands have an exemption to the waiver. “It is unacceptable to force the people of Puerto Rico to pay at least twice as much for food, clean drinking water, supplies and infrastructure due to Jones Act requirements as they work to recover from this disaster,” said Senator McCain in his letter to Duke.
The delays in aid continued as the Trump Administration’s actions and sentiments conflicted. Trump did end up visiting Puerto Rico on Oct. 2, 2017, handing out aid at a relief shelter (now infamous for him throwing paper towels at the crowd.)
The president also held a brief press conference on the island comparing Maria to the 2005 disaster hurricane Katrina: “What is your death count as of this moment? Seventeen? Sixteen people certified, 16 people versus in the thousands,” he said. The official death toll ended up at 2,975.
Trump’s rhetoric continued in the same vein as previous comments he had about the state of Puerto Rico and the debt they owed the United States. “Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble,” Trump said on Sept. 26, 2017.
The death toll continued and the power outage grew to the second largest in world history. In the following weeks, that turned into months and then years, the Trump Presidency continued to not do much to help Puerto Rico.
Actually, that’s wrong. They added extra hurdles for Puerto Rico to access $20 billion in congressionally approved funds, insisting on rebuilding property management records, and suspending the minimum wage on federal contracts just to name a few. Continuously citing “government corruption” as the leading factor.
This victim to one of the deadliest natural disasters in the U.S. in the past 100 years was a punchline on a national political stage. And that same stage exalted the now soon-to-be sitting U.S. President.