US election latest: Harris attacks huge Trump New York rally as ‘divisive and demeaning’

Image source, Reuters

Donald Trump held a huge rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night. This hometown appearance was billed as Trump’s opportunity to set up the final weeks of his presidential campaign by setting out his message to voters.

Instead, much of the focus in the hours since has been on the rhetoric used by his supporters from the stage prior to him speaking.

Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe was among those invited to warm up the crowd ahead of Trump speaking. He referred to the US territory of Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage”.

Shortly after that remark, the Trump campaign issued a statement distancing the former president from it.

Hinchcliffe also said Latinos “love making babies” and made a comment about “carving watermelons” at a Halloween party hosted by a black man – both of which draw on offensive stereotypes about those groups.

David Rem, a childhood friend of Trump, used his speech to call Kamala Harris “the devil” and “the antichrist”, while Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani falsely claimed the Democratic candidates is “on the side of the terrorists” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Harris campaign has condemned the language heard at the event as “divisive and demeaning”.