Aubrey Plaza Blasts Trump Rally Comic’s “Garbage” Joke About Puerto Rico: “Disgusting Remark”

Aubrey Plaza spoke out against a remark made by a comedian at Donald Trump‘s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday, calling Tony Hinchcliffe‘s joke insult about Puerto Rico “disgusting.”

The comedian was a warm up act for Trump himself, and called Puerto Rico a “floating pile of garbage.” He also used racist tropes about Latinos, Blacks, Jews and Palestinians.

At WSJ Magazine’s 2024 Innovator Awards, Plaza said, “As a Puerto Rican woman, I just wanted to very quickly respond to the racist joke that was made at that Trump rally about Puerto Rico, where most of my family is from. Thankfully, my sweet abuelita wasn’t here to hear that disgusting remark, but if she was alive today, I think she would say, ‘Tony Hinchcliffe, go f— yourself.'”

Plaza is the latest Puerto Rican celebrity to speak out on the remark. Ricky Martin, Bad Bunny and Jennifer Lopez have posted messages condemning the joke or expressing support for Harris.

Trump has tried to distance himself from Hinchcliffe’s remark, which has drawn a rebuke from other Republicans and some calls for the campaign to apologize. “I have no idea who he is,” Trump said on Fox News’ Hannity on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, Trump also insisted that the rally was a “love fest,” even though other speakers compared Kamala Harris to a prostitute and referred to her as the “antichrist.”

The Trump campaign has tried to turn the tables, pointing to a comment that President Joe Biden made about Hinchcliffe. In an appearance for the group Vote Latino on Tuesday, Biden called Puerto Ricans “good, decent honorable people.” “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s — his — demonization of Latinos is unconscionable.”

Trump and his allies seized on the comment, claiming that Biden had called all of the former president’s supporters “garbage.” But the White House and Biden himself clarified that the president’s use of the word “supporters” had an apostrophe, and he was talking about Hinchcliffe and his remark.