CNN
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The violent and vulgar rhetoric at Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday led to finger-pointing within the former president’s inner circle and deep concern that his message was once again overshadowed by controversy.

Several Trump allies expressed dismay at the language used by speakers at the New York City event, particularly an off-color joke about Puerto Rico from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, which opened the event and set the tone for an evening of disparaging and divisive comments.

“I am livid,” said a source close to the former president, noting that they were dismayed that the comments were not thoroughly vetted before the speakers took the stage.

Throughout Sunday afternoon and evening, a parade of speakers roused the crowd at Trump’s pre-election MAGA celebration, borrowing the anything-goes tone from the Republican candidate. Some uttered racist comments about Latinos and Black Americans; others launched misogynistic attacks on Trump’s female political opponents, past and present.

Many of these comments appeared to come from teleprompters, indicating that they had been approved by someone within the event planning team. One campaign adviser told CNN that speeches had to be vetted in advance and was unsure how the overtly racist language had reached the stage. Another senior adviser said the speeches had been vetted, but insisted the more offensive comments had been copied and were not based on any design for the campaign.

On Monday, there were still disputes within the campaign over who approved Hinchcliffe’s set, which was riddled with racial tropes. One adviser suggested no one had fully studied Hinchcliffe’s comments. Another said the campaign was not given a draft that included some of the comedian’s more indecent jokes, but did flag one that called Vice President Kamala Harris a “c*nt” as “in bad taste” and removed this one from the set.

The program was a stark departure from the meticulous staging of this summer’s Republican National Convention, where every speech was carefully researched and tightly choreographed. During the convention, campaign consultants routinely edited, and in some cases rewrote, the remarks of invited speakers, leaving minimal room for improvisation. Campaign officials acknowledged to CNN that the level of preparation that went into the convention in Milwaukee was not applied to Sunday’s meeting.

Since July’s RNC, a period marked by an extraordinary series of events — including Harris replacing President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket — Trump’s advisers have struggled to keep him focused, and his public appearances have become increasingly erratic the further he strayed from the message. . Some allies have at times publicly questioned whether the former president was striking the right tone to win over the voters needed to deliver elections in battleground states.

Sunday started with Republicans optimistic that Trump’s campaign was at least striking the right tone with a new ad that previewed the prospect of a second Trump presidency.

“President Trump is fighting for you. His strength kept us safe. Trump cut taxes for families. Prices were lower and the border was secure. Now President Trump can do it again, and we will move into a new golden age of American success for its citizens of every race, religion, color and creed,” a narrator said.

Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist and CNN political commentator, praised the ad as a “perfect closing argument” for Trump’s campaign. But by 8 p.m., any hope that Trump would build on that message at Madison Square Garden had evaporated.

Still, the offensive comments that night were not entirely out of place in the context of a Trump rally, where the use of crude slogans, explicit Kid Rock anthems and offensive nicknames for political opponents was the norm. Many of his supporters express themselves through crude messages on T-shirts. Trump himself has often adopted nativist language and increasingly uses profanity in his speeches.

For nearly a decade, Trump has struggled — if not thrived — with the lack of a filter defining his political brand, leaving Democrats without a clear path to exploiting it in the latter part of the race. In a similar vein, Future Forward, the leading super PAC backing Harris’ presidential campaign, recently warned that Democrats risk diluting their ultimate message by spending time labeling Trump a fascist.

Still, the timing of Sunday’s event — so close to Election Day and with a high-profile backdrop in New York — has sparked a new wave of concern among Republicans.

The controversy largely revolves around Hinchcliffe’s joke about Puerto Rico, which he called a “floating island of trash.” A handful of Republicans, some with close ties to Trump, issued statements condemning the comments. Senator Rick Scott of Florida, the state with the largest Puerto Rican population, described the comments as “neither funny nor true.” Rep. Byron Donalds, also from Florida, said: “Nobody agreed with that.”

See how an offensive joke from Puerto Rico could backfire on Trump in Pennsylvania

The allies expressed concern that the comments could have political ramifications, especially given the growing influence of Puerto Ricans in the battleground states, where about half a million people live in Pennsylvania alone. Sources close to the former president confirmed that a number of calls had been made to campaign officials emphasizing the need to respond to the comments.

Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, a New York Republican and Puerto Rican facing one of the nation’s toughest reelection battles, wrote on X: “The only thing that was ‘garbage’ was a bad comedy set.”

“Stay tuned,” D’Esposito advised.

Trump’s campaign, which has generally been unapologetic when it comes to inflammatory statements, quickly released a statement Sunday evening distancing itself from Hinchcliffe’s comments.

“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” campaign spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez said.

Trump’s distancing from Hinchcliffe did not extend to the comedian’s other inflammatory comments — which included a stereotype about black people and watermelons, as well as a crude claim about the sex lives of Latino immigrants.. The campaign also failed to acknowledge other speakers who expressed condemnation, such as one who called Harris “the devil” and “the antichrist.”

As of Monday, there were no plans for Trump to address the comments during his upcoming appearances. The former president held an event in Georgia on Monday and will travel to Pennsylvania on Tuesday.

The Democrats quickly seized on the outwardly offensive display on Sunday. In the aftermath of the rally, Puerto Rican music superstar Bad Bunny voiced his support for Harris to his 45 million social media followers, quickly promoting her campaign.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, called Trump’s event at Madison Square Garden a “hate rally” and suggested the campaign was in damage control mode over Hinchcliffe’s comments.

“They are only now realizing that they may have made a big mistake by saying what they think out loud,” she told MSNBC on Monday.

‘None of that was an accident’: AOC responds to Puerto Rico joke made at Trump rally

However, it remains to be seen whether Trump will face electoral consequences for the comments disparaging Puerto Rico. Trump himself once called the area ‘one of the most corrupt places on earth’. He accused local officials there of inflating Hurricane Maria’s death toll — estimated at 3,000 — to make him look bad.

Democrats sought to mobilize Puerto Ricans in some battlegrounds in 2020 by attacking Trump’s handling of the response to Maria. Spanish-language ads and billboards in Florida showed Trump throwing paper towels at survivors who had lost their homes, highlighting his past criticism of the island. In Osceola County, where the population surged after Maria and one in three voters identified as Puerto Rican, Democrats enlisted storm survivors to reach out to other Puerto Ricans against Trump.

Ultimately, Trump won Florida and in Osceola County his performance improved by 7 points.