Nikki Haley said the inclusion of a comedian that delivered a racist set at Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally was not helping the former president’s campaign, adding Puerto Ricans were right to be offended by the jokes he made at their expense.
Haley spoke to Fox News host Bret Baier on Tuesday as the Trump campaign scrambled to contain the fallout after comedian Tony Hinchcliffe joked that Puerto Rico was an “island of garbage.” The set — which also featured racist tropes about Black people, Jews and Latinos as a whole — has prompted concern among Republicans in a presidential campaign that is effectively tied in many of the swing states likely to determine the election.
“This is not a time to have anyone criticize Puerto Rico or Latinos,” Haley said Tuesday. “This is not a time for them to get overly masculine with this bromance things that they have got going. 53 percent of the electorate are women. Women will vote. They care about how they are being talked to and they care about the issues.”
“They need to remember that.”
The former South Carolina governor and GOP presidential candidate went on to say Hinchcliffe’s remarks and the attacks Trump and his surrogates have lobbed at Harris’ race and gender were hurting the campaign. She added she remained on “standby” to help the former president campaign, but that she had not heard from him since June.
“I mean, look, there is no reason to have a comedian at an election campaign event that had so much energy and so many good issues. Why have a comedian that separates people,” Haley said. “This isn’t about people being sensitive. Puerto Ricans, that’s personal for them. They take that personally.”
“So, they were right to denounce the comedian,” she went on, referencing the Trump campaign’s unusually quick effort to distance the former president from the jokes. “They need to go and tell Puerto Ricans how much, you know, they do value them. They need to tell Latinos that.”