[Taghaidh ceann-suidhe na SA 2024]Candidate Trump gets slurred at a rally…

Pennsylvania has 19 electors to decide the president. So this important state has a big impact on the outcome of the presidential election.

In the last presidential election in 2020, the Democrats won this state with a margin of only 1.17% (about 82,000 votes). For that reason, people here say that the “joke” that rejected Puerto Rico could be a dark memory for the Republican Party.

Fair Hill resident Yvon Torres Miranda says he remains unhappy with both Republican nominee Trump and Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris. There are only eight days left until polling day.

Miranda said, “It was a big loss for themselves (for the Trump campaign). They hurt so much I thought they were crazy.”

“Even if it was a joke (to Mr Hinchcliffe), you shouldn’t make a joke like that.

“We are Puerto Ricans. We are honored and we are proud.” Miranda speaks quickly in strong Puerto Rican Spanish.

“You have to think before you say something.”

In response to the criticism, the Trump campaign tried to distance itself from the joke, with a spokesperson saying that Hinchcliffe’s comments “do not reflect the thinking” of the candidate or his campaign.

Meanwhile, the Harris camp was quick to condemn the “joke.” “These comments show once again that candidate Trump is trying to divide Americans and ignite the fuel of conflict,” he said.

On the same day, Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny and Puerto Rican actor and singer Jennifer Lopez announced their support for Harris.

A campaign official from Harris told the American BBC affiliate CBS that the scandal was a political donation to the Democrats.

Some Puerto Ricans disagree.

“That sealed it. That just sealed the victory,” Harrise’s supporter, Jesse Ramos, told the BBC. “He has no idea how hard Latinos will go out of their way to support Kamala Harris.”

Puerto Ricans living in the US territory of Puerto Rico cannot vote in US presidential elections. However, many Puerto Ricans living in the United States have the right to vote.

In Pennsylvania, there are approximately 600,000 Latino voters.

Of those, more than 470,000 are of Puerto Rican descent. This state has a particularly large concentration of Puerto Ricans. Polls show that Puerto Rican votes could have a big impact on the outcome in a state where candidates Harris and Trump are still in a tight race.

Candidate Harris, in particular, has made a strong case for support in North Philadelphia. On the 27th, I stopped at Freddy and Tony’s, a popular Puerto Rican restaurant in Fairhill that attracts a lot of people.

Whether this will sway Puerto Rican voters remains to be seen.

Dalma Santiago, owner of Freddie & Tony’s, told the BBC that while she doesn’t know if Trump’s “joke” at his rally will change the outcome of the election, she wants to help Puerto Rican communities in Fairhill and elsewhere I thought that comment was “going out loud and clear.” “

“People have different opinions, but nobody ever forgets that,” Santiago told the BBC.

Similarly, Moses Santana, who was in the US Army for 13 years, told the BBC that he was not sure about the effect of the joke.

Mr. Santana, who works at an addiction treatment facility in Fair Hill, said in a street interview that people in the area have traditionally been angry with politicians of all stripes. Many residents believe that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have done enough to address the area’s social and economic problems, crime and drug addiction.

“Whatever people around here want, they don’t get it. That tends to happen. It’s the same with voting.”

Candidate Trump will visit Allentown in central Pennsylvania on the 29th. Of the population of 125,000, approximately 33,000 people identify as Puerto Rican.

But many in the Latino community across Pennsylvania, even Trump supporters, criticize that joke.

For example, Jessenia Anderson is one of them. Mr. Anderson, who lives in Johnstown, about 150 miles west of Philadelphia, is an Army veteran and a native of New York City’s Lower East Side, an area that is largely Puerto Rican. He supports candidate Trump and often attends rallies in Pennsylvania.

Anderson called that “joke” “very ignorant and unpleasant.” He also said he thought Mr Hinchcliffe’s “disclosure” was “completely out of place”. He urged other Republicans to “have conversations with compassion and mutual respect.”

However, Anderson has no plans to change who he will vote for.

“I still believe strongly that the Republican Party can have a positive impact on this country,” Anderson said, “and I look forward to showing and engaging with Latino voters with the respect they deserve.”