Trump Likely Lost the Election at the Madison Square Garden Rally

Tony Hinchcliffe, a comedian, started the rally with this memorable line: I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.

While this was bad, if the campaign only had this “joke,” they could have distanced themselves from it. There has not been that much of an attempt, beyond a Twitter statement, that this was not the case. However, the campaign vetted it. We know because the campaign stopped him from making worse jokes about Kamala Harris, according to the Bulkward.

So why did the Trump campaign decide to go after Puerto Ricans, of all people? Let’s not forget how they were treated during Hurricane Maria or that Trump wanted to exchange the territory for Greenland, which Denmark controls. So here is the information about Puerto Ricans and their participation in Federal elections:

Puerto Ricans who live on the island can’t vote in federal elections as set forth in the U.S. Constitution. Consequently, they do not have full representation in Congress. This applies to all other U.S. territories, which are limited to sending to the U.S. House “one non-voting territorial delegate,” Barreto says.

But Puerto Ricans residing in the U.S. can vote by absentee ballot, or, alternatively, travel to their respective states to cast their ballot. “So Puerto Ricans who live on the U.S. mainland — and, at this point, almost…