Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump both held campaign events in Pennsylvania on the last day before Election Day, and both visited Reading, a city of nearly 100,000 that is two-thirds Hispanic and could be of major importance are for victory. the Keystone State.
At one Trump rally in ReadingU.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban American, spoke to Trump supporters in Spanish. Rubio told them that Spanish “sounds more passive” and asked for understanding while jokingly saying he spoke Cuban.
“But the Boricuas will understand,” he said, referring to a term used for Puerto Ricans, “and also for the Dominicans.”
Trump, he said in Spanish, is “the only candidate who says from now on that you will be a priority, not ship jobs abroad, not send factories to other countries and not worry about the needs of people from other countries,” he said.
Harris spent much of the day reaching out to Latino voters the state considered part of the “blue wall” that Democrats have relied on to win the Electoral College.
As part of that effort, Harris’ campaign and other Democrats spent the final hours of the 2024 campaign in the nation’s largest battleground state, linking Trump. comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s critique of Puerto Rico as a “floating island of trash.”
The comments were made during a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden and It cost the Republican candidate the support of popular Puerto Rican artist Nicky Jam. Meanwhile, superstar Bad Bunnyalso from Puerto Rico, endorsed Harris.
Reading was just one stop for Harris as she crisscrossed Pennsylvania on Monday.
In the Berks County town, a crowd gathered outside a Puerto Rican restaurant called Old San Juan Cafe to catch a glimpse of the vice president. Flanked by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Harris asked guests about the restaurant and what type of food to order, opting for a bag of plantains, cassava and rice.
Jacquelyn Martin / AP
Harris, Trump campaigns work to court Latino voters in Pennsylvania
Mayor Eddie Moran, the first Latino to hold the position in his city’s 276-year history, said he found it ironic that the next president “may be decided by Pennsylvania, but even more so by Latinos,” in communities like Reading , by “some of the individuals who have been least respected in the past to make that decision.”
“He continues to insult us by knocking on our door here in Reading, a community that is 70% Latino. And of those, about 30,000 are Puerto Ricans,” Moran said of Trump on Monday. “And yet here he is today at a rally. How insulting is that?’
Harris also addressed Puerto Rican voters in Allentown, where she touted her “longstanding commitment” to the island, where residents are U.S. citizens but do not get a say in the Electoral College.
Fat Joe, a rapper with Puerto Rican descent, spoke briefly before Harris and urged voters to support the Democrat.
“The other day at Madison Square Garden, that was no joke, ladies and gentlemen. That was no joke,” Fat Joe said. “I call Puerto Rico the island of garbage, my Latinos, where is your pride?”
During Trump’s rally at Santander Arena in Reading, Rubio did not directly address Hinchcliffe’s joke, and neither did Trump. Instead, the former president has praised his relationship with the island, saying, “We have helped Puerto Rico more than anyone else.”
In September 2020, after criticism of the slow response to Hurricane Maria in 2017, Trump released $13 billion in aid to repair years of hurricane damage. It took Trump two weeks to visit the island after the storm. He was criticized for an act in which he threw rolls of paper towels into the crowd.
Emilio Feliciano, 43, rejected the joke. Although his family is Puerto Rican, he said he cared more about the economy and still plans to vote for Trump on Tuesday.
“Boo hoo. We have bigger fish to fry. I will never cry because Puerto Rico is called trash,” he said at the Reading event. ‘Will the border be safe? Will you reduce crime? That’s what I care about.’
But Luis Colon, 45, a Puerto Rican who lives in Reading, walked into the same meeting planning to vote for Harris. He said the comments at the Trump rally were a “disgrace.”
“I just go in to see the stupidity and the nonsense. I’m not voting for Trump; I don’t support Trump. Trump is not going for the Latinos; he is against us. Trump is going to bring us under the bus,” Colon said.
