Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin unleashed on Donald Trump during Monday’s The View, after the former president’s Sunday night rally at Madison Square Garden featured incendiary “jokes” from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe.
Though Hinchcliffe relied on racial and ethnic tropes aimed at several different groups during his set at Trump‘s rally, one of the most widely circulated was his line calling Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage.” He’d also said Latinos “love making babies,” adding “There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside. Just like they did to our country.”
The remarks were widely condemned by Democrats and Republicans alike. A Trump campaign person said via The Hill, “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.” But Navarro was not buying it.
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“This comedian [was] handpicked, chosen, vetted by the Trump campaign because he reflects what Trump has said his entire lifetime,” Navarro, who is Nicaraguan, said Monday. “Today, we are all Puerto Ricans,” she continued. “This comedian talked 32 minutes into this rally. Donald Trump showed up four hours and 52 minutes into this rally, so he had over four hours to come out there and condemn these comments to distance himself. He didn’t do it.”
“And [Hinchcliffe] didn’t just make jokes about Puerto Ricans. He made jokes about Blacks [with the] whole trope about watermelons. He made a vile joke about Latinos that we can’t even put on daytime TV,” she continued, “So today we are all in this together.”
Navarro then took the opportunity to appeal Latino voters who support Trump. “If Trump asking for the death penalty for five young men of color, Black and Latino, ‘The Exonerated Five,’ wasn’t enough for you. If Trump getting investigated for refusing to rent to Black people wasn’t enough for you. If Trump promoting a racist trope against the first Black president with the birtherism bulls--t wasn’t enough for you. If Trump calling Mexicans rapists and criminals and bad hombres wasn’t enough for you. If Trump calling us vermin, invaders, people who poison the blood of this country wasn’t enough for you. If Trump throwing paper towels at people in need after Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico wasn’t enough for you. If Trump’s saying immigrants have made this country into the trash can of the world wasn’t enough for you,” then maybe these so-called jokes will, she said.
Co-host Sunny Hostin, who is Puerto Rican, had a similarly scathing take prepared.
“This Puerto Rican has something to say about the island that I love, where my family is from,” Hostin told viewers. “We are Americans, Donald Trump. We serve disproportionately high in the military while you have bone spurs—and we vote,” she continued. She then read a list of how many potential Latino voters there are in several crucial states in the presidential race, who may have been put off by Trump’s platforming of Hinchcliffe’s remarks.
Latino celebrity Harris supporters “Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, Bad Bunny, Luis Fonsi, and Mark Anthony have over 345 million followers on Instagram,” Hostin added. “I think you only have 26 million—since you care so much about size. And we don’t like what was said about Puerto Rico.” Hostin vowed that Latinos “know how to take the trash out.”
“My fellow Puerto Ricans,” she concluded, “Trash Collection Day is November 5th, 2024.”
