(The Hill) – Former President Trump on Monday boasted about the attendance at his Madison Square Garden rally even as his campaign finds itself engulfed in controversy over jokes made during the event.
“Look! Look! Up in the little, tiny corners of this big place. We’ve had the greatest rallies in the history of the world, not just this country,” Trump told supporters at a rally in Atlanta, pointing to some of the supporters in the upper seating sections.
“There’s never been — I mean, we filled up Madison Square Garden last night. We could have filled it up 10 times,” he continued. “If you looked outside, you saw that all the way back to the Hudson River. There’s never been anything like it.”
Madison Square Garden, where Trump held a rally on Sunday, seats up to 19,500 people. His campaign said the event had been sold out, according to Reuters.
But it was largely the guest speakers featured at the rally — not Trump himself — who attracted headlines. Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe in particular generated criticism for calling Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage.” He also made a crude joke about Latinos, babies and immigration.
Conservative firebrand Tucker Carlson, another guest speaker, mocked Vice President Harris’s racial identity at the event, while Trump ally Rudy Giuliani made racist remarks about Palestinians.
The Trump campaign has sought to distance itself from Hinchcliffe’s comments, arguing they don’t represent the views of the campaign.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said Monday on “Fox & Friends” that “it was a comedian who made a joke in poor taste.”
“Obviously, that joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or our campaign, and I think it is sad that the media will pick up on one joke that was made by a comedian, rather than the truths that were shared by the phenomenal list of speakers that we had,” she said.
