It’s probably a sure thing that insulting Puerto Rico will quickly be forgotten.
But the Kansas City Chiefs’ Travis Kelce might not be so quick to forgive.
The setting was Saturday night in New York City’s famous Madison Square Garden where Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump was holding a campaign rally.
First on stage was Tony Hinchcliffe, a comedian, who breaks the ice with this zinger: “There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
The audience emits a few groans and boos.
Hinchcliffe likely knew he was safe from any backlash because as a U.S. territory, Puerto Ricans are unable to vote in U.S. elections. So what’s the harm in calling them trash?
From there, the comedian slammed Latinos in general, saying, “They love making babies,” and then devolved into truly nasty remarks.
Beyond distasteful.
To wrap the set, Hinchcliffe joked that Travis Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end “might be the next O.J. Simpson,” because of his relationship with pop singer Taylor Swift, who in September endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
Simpson was accused and later acquitted for murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown.
As a profession, comedians prick our consciences by often going beyond what is acceptable decorum. Some find that offensiveness freeing.
That disinhibition is what many find attractive about Trump. He says what some are secretly thinking. It’s what made his TV show so famous and keeps him in the spotlight.
Increasingly, however, those thoughts have taken a more ominous and perverse tone, such as discussing the size of golfer Arnold Palmer’s anatomy; calling legal migrants “vermin,” and making racist slurs against his opponent Vice President Kamala Harris by calling her “a sh*t vice president,” “lazy as hell,” having a “low IQ,” “crazy, “stupid,” and “the worst ever.”
Trump and his stand-ins’ loathsome rhetoric of the last few weeks of the campaign is a hint of what’s to come. We know that because it was a cornerstone of his first term as he sowed doubts about the coronavirus pandemic and election security.
Though Kelce will likely not address the OJ Simpson reference, that doesn’t mean the threat of violence against Ms. Swift was not heard. Loud and clear.
