Democrats escalate attacks on Trump after comedian calls Puerto Rico 'floating island of garbage'

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats stepped up their attacks on Donald Trump on Monday, a day after a comedian opening the former president's Madison Square Garden rally called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” a comment that drew wide condemnation and highlighted the rising power of a key Latino group in the swing state of Pennsylvania.

Vice President Kamala Harris called Trump’s rally “more vivid than usual” and said he “fans the fuel of hate” before she flew to Michigan for a campaign event. President Joe Biden called the rally “simply embarrassing.” In a rare move late Sunday, the Trump campaign distanced itself from the remarks on Puerto Rico made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe.

“The garbage he spoke about is polluting our elections and confirming just how little Donald Trump cares about Latinos specifically, about our Puerto Rican community,” Eddie Moran, mayor of Reading, said at a news conference with other Puerto Rican officials.

With just over a week before Election Day, the fallout underscores the importance of Pennsylvania's 19 electoral votes and the last-minute efforts to court growing numbers of Hispanic voters, mostly from Puerto Rico, who have settled in cities west and north of Philadelphia.

The Harris campaign was still planning an ad targeting Puerto Rican voters and highlighting the Trump rally. The comedian's remarks landed Harris a show of support from Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny and prompted reactions from Republicans in Florida and in Puerto Rico.

From Labor Day to this past weekend, both campaigns have made more visits to Pennsylvania than to Georgia, Arizona and Nevada combined, according to Associated Press tracking of the campaigns’ public events. The state has some of the fastest-growing Hispanic communities, including in Reading and Allentown, where more than half of the population is Hispanic.

Pennsylvania’s Latino eligible voter population has more than doubled since 2000, from 206,000 to 620,000 in 2023, according to Census Bureau figures. More than half of those are Puerto Rican eligible voters.

The comedian's remarks were played early Monday on Spanish-language radio in Pennsylvania by one of Harris' surrogates based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, who called out Trump for not issuing an apology beyond a statement from the campaign saying “this joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”

In central Florida, U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, a Democrat whose district covers neighborhoods with large numbers of Puerto Ricans recently moved from the island, noted Monday that there are “huge numbers” of Puerto Ricans in swing states.

“We remember, and you know what, we are going to vote,” Soto said at a news conference called by Puerto Rican leaders. “That’s the only thing we can do right now.”

Harris said Monday that none of the vitriol at the Madison Square Garden rally will support the dreams and aspirations of the American people but instead fans "the fuel of trying to divide our country.”

She said Trump's event Sunday, in which speakers hurled cruel and racist insults, “highlighted the point that I've been making throughout this campaign.”

“He is focused and actually fixated on his grievances, on himself and on dividing our country, and it is not in any way something that will strengthen the American family, the American worker,” the Democratic presidential nominee told reporters.

Harris also said: “What he did last night is not a discovery. It is just more of the same and may be more vivid than usual. Donald Trump spends full time trying to have Americans point their finger at each other, fans the fuel of hate and division, and that’s why people are exhausted with him.”

Harris also spoke about her proposals for Puerto Rico, such as creating a task force to bring in private companies to upgrade the island’s electrical grid.

Trump planned to return to Pennsylvania on Tuesday with a visit to Allentown after delivering remarks to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida.

Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Associated Press writers Mike Schneider in Orlando and Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump waves at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris greets employees after speaking at the Hemlock Semiconductor Next-Generation Finishing facility in Hemlock, Mich., Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks after taking a tour of the Hemlock Semiconductor Next-Generation Finishing facility in Hemlock, Mich., Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, from second right, tours the Hemlock Semiconductor Next-Generation Finishing facility as Corning Chairman and CEO Wendell Weeks looks on, in Hemlock, Mich., Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Tony Hinchcliffe arrives to speak before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Tony Hinchcliffe speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Tony Hinchcliffe arrives to speak before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives on Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (Erin Schaff//The New York Times via AP, Pool)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris eats Doritos and thanks senior staff aboard Air Force Two in Philadelphia, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (Erin Schaff//The New York Times via AP, Pool)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris eats Doritos and thanks senior staff aboard Air Force Two in Philadelphia, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (Erin Schaff//The New York Times via AP, Pool)

Uncertainty reigns entering the final full week of the 2024 campaign with Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump locked in a fiercely competitive presidential contest. What happens in the coming days will be pivotal in deciding the winner of next week's election.

Trump on Sunday held a rally at Madison Square Garden where several speakers made racist and crude remarks, including comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who described Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage.” Shortly after those remarks, Puerto Rican reggaeton artist Bad Bunny endorsed Harris.

Trump plans to hold a rally in Atlanta Monday evening while Harris will make several campaign stops in Michigan, including a rally with singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers.

Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here’s the latest:

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told a Wisconsin audience Tuesday that the rhetoric used during former President Donald Trump’s rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday highlighted the antagonistic tone of the Republican campaign’s closing message.

“Their closing argument last night was clear to the rest of the world: It’s about hate, it’s about division,” said the Democratic nominee for vice president, speaking at Copilot Coffee Co. in downtown Waukesha, Wisconsin.

The rally, which saw thousands of Trump supporters at one of the most iconic arenas in the country, was filled with crude and racist insults.

Democrats have lambasted the remarks, particularly one comment where a speaker called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”

Walz said he and Harris offer “a new way forward” and lamented that Trump’s version of the Republican Party is “fundamentally different” from former Republican presidents like Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

SEATTLE — Police say they have identified a “suspect vehicle” connected to incendiary devices that set fires in ballot drop boxes in Oregon and Washington state early Monday.

Surveillance images captured a Volvo stopping at a drop box in Portland, Oregon, just before security personnel nearby discovered a fire inside the box.

That fire damaged three ballots inside, while officials say a fire at a drop box in nearby Vancouver, Washington, early Monday destroyed hundreds of ballots.

Authorities said at a news conference in Portland that enough material from the incendiary devices was recovered to show that the two fires Monday were connected — and that they were also connected to an Oct. 8 incident, when an incendiary device was placed at a different ballot drop box in Vancouver.

House Speaker Mike Johnson appears to be confirming Trump’s claim that Republicans have a “secret” plan to win the election.

“By definition, a secret is not to be shared — and I don’t intend to share this one,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement.

The Republican speaker, who led a key legal challenge to the 2020 election, has worked to stay close to Trump and has been hesitant to contradict him. At his rally in New York on Sunday Trump said they have a “little secret” in the House that will have a “big impact.”

The statement was first reported by the New York Times.

Kamala Harris, campaigning in Michigan on Monday, told an audience at a semiconductor facility in Saginaw County that on “day one” of her possible presidency she will reassess which federal jobs require a college degree.

The comment is both a policy proposal and a political bridge.

One of the clearest political divides in the nation over the past few presidential cycles has been between college-educated and non-college-educated voters, with Democrats acknowledging they need to cut into Donald Trump’s support among the latter group.

“One of the things immediately is to reassess federal jobs, and I have already started looking at it, to look at which ones don’t require a college degree,” she said. “Because here is the thing: That’s not the only qualification for a qualified worker.”

Earlier in her speech, Harris said, “We need to get in front of this idea that only high-skilled jobs require college degrees.”

SEATTLE — Authorities — including the FBI — are investigating after early morning fires were set in ballot drop boxes in Portland, Oregon, and in nearby Vancouver, Washington.

Hundreds of ballots were destroyed in the Vancouver fire. In Portland, only three ballots were damaged after an incendiary device triggered a fire suppression system inside a drop box. The drop box that was targeted across the Columbia River in Vancouver also had a fire suppression system, but Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey says that for unknown reasons it failed work effectively.

Vancouver is in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, the site of what is expected to be one of the closest U.S. House races in the country, between first-term Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Republican challenger Joe Kent.

▶ Read more about the ballots that were destroyed

Vice President Kamala Harris told an audience at a semiconductor facility in Saginaw County, Michigan, on Monday that their work represents “the best of who we are as a country,” balancing the traditions of the nation and the desire to push technology forward.

“When we understand who we are as a nation, we take great pride in being a leader on so many things. And we have a tradition of that,” she said at the Hemlock Semiconductor facility in central Michigan. “But I think that what we know as Americans is that we cannot rest on tradition.”

Harris added: “We have to constantly be on top of what is happening, what is current, and investing in the industries of the future, as well as honoring the traditions and the industries that have built up America’s economy.”

Hemlock Semiconductor recently received a $325 million federal grant for a new factory.

The Republican nominee for president will deliver what his campaign is calling “remarks to the press” at 10 a.m. at his private club and residence in Palm Beach, Florida. It is unclear whether the former president will take questions.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A comic calling Puerto Rico garbage before a packed Donald Trump rally in New York was the latest humiliation for an island territory that has long suffered from mistreatment, residents said Monday in expressions of fury that could affect the presidential election.

Puerto Ricans cannot vote in general elections despite being U.S. citizens, but they can exert a powerful influence with relatives on the mainland. Phones across the island of 3.2 million people were ringing minutes after the speaker derided the U.S. territory Sunday night, and they still buzzed Monday.

▶ Read more about Puerto Ricans’ response to the remarks

President Joe Biden said it was “totally inappropriate” for Elon Musk to pledge to give away $1 million a day to voters for signing his political action committee’s petition. The billionaire and owner of the social platform X has gone all-in on Republican Donald Trump.

The giveaway has raised questions and alarms among some election experts who say it is a violation of the law to link a cash handout to signing a petition that also requires a person to be registered to vote.

“I think it’s totally inappropriate,” he said in Delaware where he just voted.

The Democratic and Republican presidential tickets are heading into the final week of campaigning with a familiar strategy: Rally supporters in the handful of states that will decide the race.

Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin have received the most attention from Kamala Harris, Donald Trump and their running mates since the Labor Day weekend — the point when campaigning traditionally intensifies.

The Democratic ticket has been more active over the past two weeks, according to Associated Press tracking of the campaigns’ public events.

From Oct. 14 through this past weekend, Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, held 42 campaign events over the seven swing states while Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, held 25.

There has been a stark contrast in Wisconsin: Harris and Walz visited the state eight times between Oct. 14 and Sunday, compared to just one visit by Trump and Vance during that span. The Republicans are headed back to Wisconsin this week, including a rally in Milwaukee.

The AP tracker shows that from Labor Day through this past weekend both campaigns have made more visits to Pennsylvania (43) than to Georgia, Arizona and Nevada combined (40). See where the campaigns have been traveling with this AP interactive map.

In response to Donald Trump’s New York rally where speakers made crude and racist insults, President Joe Biden said: “It’s simply embarrassing. That’s why this election is so important.”

Biden was speaking after he voted Monday in Delaware.

“Most of the presidential scholars I’ve spoken to talk about the single most consequential thing about a president is character. Character,” Biden said. “And he puts that in question every time he opens his mouth.”

President Joe Biden waited in line for about 40 minutes Monday before he cast his ballot.

He handed his identification to the election worker, who had him sign and then announced: “Joseph Biden now voting.”

As Biden voted behind a black drape, some first-time voters were announced and the room erupted in cheers for them.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican and outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump, says she won’t vote for him or Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, in the general election.

“I want to vote for somebody and not against someone,” she told the Anchorage Daily News. She added she was disappointed with the choices from both major parties.

Murkowski voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection and also called for him to resign. She said she didn’t vote for him in 2016 or 2020.

“I am going to be voting for someone and hopefully I will feel good about that, even knowing that that individual probably is not going to be in the winner column,” Murkowski said.

Murkowski declined to say who would get her vote.

There are six other candidates on the Alaska ballot for president, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. even though he dropped out of the race in August.

When President Joe Biden arrived at the polling place at the Delaware Department of Elections on Monday, there was a long line of people lined up waiting to vote.

He chatted with some and was pushing an older woman in a wheelchair who was ahead of him in line. They were all casting ballots early for the Nov. 5 election.

Kamala Harris said Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square helped prove her point about the stakes of the election.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Harris said the Sunday event “really highlighted the point that I’ve been making throughout this campaign,” which is that Trump is “fixated on his grievances, on himself, and on dividing our country, and it is not in any way something that will strengthen the American family, the American worker.”

Harris plans to deliver her closing argument on Tuesday in Washington.

“There’s a big difference between he and I,” she said.

“Let’s go vote,” he told reporters Monday after breakfast with Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who has served as Delaware’s lone House member since 2017 and is running for U.S. Senate.

Donald Trump will be holding his election night party in Florida at the Palm Beach Convention Center.

The venue, announced by his campaign on Monday, is not far from his Mar-a-Lago club and residence.

WASHINGTON — American voters are approaching the presidential election with deep unease about what could follow, including the potential for political violence, attempts to overturn the election results and its broader implications for democracy, according to a new poll.

The findings of the survey, conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, speak to persistent concerns about the fragility of the world’s oldest democracy, nearly four years after former President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 election results inspired a mob of his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol in a violent attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

About 4 in 10 registered voters say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about violent attempts to overturn the results after the November election. A similar share is worried about legal efforts to do so. And about 1 in 3 voters say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about attempts by local or state election officials to stop the results from being finalized.

▶ Read more about the latest AP-NORC poll

President Joe Biden swung by a breakfast spot near his home outside Wilmington, Delaware, with a longtime ally who is vying to represent Delaware in the U.S. Senate.

The president and Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester headed to The Legend Restaurant & Bakery in New Castle. Blunt Rochester, who has served as Delaware’s lone House member since 2017, is trying to become the first Black woman elected to represent Delaware in the U.S. Senate.

Biden formally endorsed Blunt Rochester in a video released on Sunday evening by the lawmaker’s campaign. He is set to cast his early-vote ballot later Monday before heading back to Washington.

As former President Donald Trump continues to attack Vice President Kamala Harris with deeply personal insults, he has also suggested she should take a cognitive test.

In an interview with CBS News, Harris said “sure” when asked whether she’d take such a test.

“I would challenge him to take the same one,” Harris said. “I think he actually is increasingly unstable and unhinged and has resorted to name-calling because he actually has no plan for the American people.”

It’s the same line Trump used when President Joe Biden was still running for president as questions swirled about the 81-year-old’s age and mental acuity following his disastrous debate performance in June.

Trump is 78 and is now the oldest candidate to run for office.

President Joe Biden plans to cast an early ballot on Monday near his home outside Wilmington, Delaware, according to the White House.

For all but a few years since 1970, Biden has held office or has been running for one during election season. But this year, his hopes lie with a newer generation of Democrats, including three on the Delaware ballot looking to make history.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who Biden endorsed after dropping out of the presidential race in July, is vying to become the first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to serve as president.

Meanwhile, state Sen. Sarah McBride is looking to become the first openly transgender candidate to be elected to the U.S. House.

McBride is aiming to succeed Democrat Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who is looking to become Delaware’s first Black woman to win the U.S. Senate seat. She has served as Delaware’s lone representative in the House since 2017.

Biden on Sunday evening formally endorsed Blunt Rochester, cutting a video for her campaign in which he called her “Delaware through and through.”

Kamala Harris says she has three immediate legislative priorities when she takes office, should she be elected president.

In an interview with CBS News, Harris said her first priority will be reducing costs for Americans with an expanded child tax credit and efforts to reduce the cost of groceries and make homes more affordable. The second is to work to restore abortion rights protections and the third will be to work on passage of a border security bill.

Harris and Republican Donald Trump are in a tight race for the White House.

Kamala Harris will focus on manufacturing jobs Monday as she heads back to Michigan.

She’s set to visit Corning’s Hemlock Semiconductor Next Gen Facility. The Saginaw company received a $325 million investment from the CHIPS and Science Act, legislation passed by the Biden administration.

She’s then touring a labor training facility in Macomb County. The election is in a week and one day, and Harris is hoping to appeal to many different voting blocs in the battleground states, in a dead-heat race with Donald Trump. On Tuesday she’ll give a closing speech in Washington.

Uncertainty reigns entering the final full week of the 2024 campaign with Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump locked in a fiercely competitive presidential contest. What happens in the coming days will be pivotal in deciding the winner.

Read more about what we're watching this week.

President Joe Biden, center, holds an "I Voted Early" sticker upon exiting the voting booth after casting his early-voting ballot for the 2024 general elections, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in New Castle, Del. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Joe Biden, left, walks with Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., after having breakfast at The Legend Restaurant & Bakery, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in New Castle, Del. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a community rally at the Alan Horwitz "Sixth Man" Center, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)