Former President Donald Trump sitting inside a garbage truck at Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Wednesday.
Former President Donald Trump sitting inside a garbage truck at Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Wednesday. Credit: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

WASHINGTON — The Harris and Trump campaigns are making their final campaign stops in this coin-toss election and have shifted much of their attention to efforts to get out the vote.

Those efforts will be made by ground troops and phone banks and closing arguments that differ as much as the candidates.

At a speech on the Washington, D.C., Ellipse with the White House as a backdrop — the spot where Trump gave his Jan. 6, 2021, speech before the Capitol riot — Harris positioned herself as a change agent who would “turn the page” on the bitter tribal politics that have gripped the nation.

“Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other. That’s who he is,” Harris said. “But America, I am here tonight to say: that’s not who we are.”

Trump hoped to close with a message of unity.

But that was overshadowed by a new source of discord. Puerto Rico suddenly became an issue for Trump after a comedian at his rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday insulted the second-largest group of Latinos in the United States — and in Minnesota.

The comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, described Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage.” He also made a crude joke about Latinos, babies and immigration.

That touched off a flurry of protests from Puerto Ricans and other Latinos, whom the Trump campaign had been trying to woo.

Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, was playing Madden on Twitch with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., whose parents are from Puerto Rico, when he heard of Hinchcliffe’s slurs.

“Who is that jackwad?” Walz asked on the streaming site. “When you have some a-hole calling Puerto Rico ‘floating garbage,’ know that that’s what they think about you. It’s what they think about anyone who makes less money than them … I want every Puerto Rican in Philadelphia and Reading and across the country to see this clip.”

He then attacked Trump for his handling of Hurricane Maria, which hit Puerto Rico and caused mass devastation in 2017 during his presidency.

That hurricane brought many Puerto Ricans to the United States, and to Minnesota, where the U.S. Census says about 20,000 islanders live.

Miguel Fiol, a professor of neurology at the University of Minnesota, is on the board of the Puerto Ricans in Minnesota Committee, or PRIM, an advocacy group.

He said fellow Puerto Ricans in Minnesota are “pretty scattered,” although about 60% of them live in the Twin Cities. While Mexicans and Mexican Americans are by far the largest Latino group in the state, Puerto Ricans come in at No. 2.

He said Puerto Ricans are “very upset” about Hinchcliffe’s jokes.

“I suspect it will adversely affect the Trump candidacy,” he said.

Residents of Puerto Rico can’t vote in U.S. elections despite being U.S. citizens. But they can if they live in one of the 50 states or Washington, D.C., and are registered to vote. This could have an impact in swing state Pennsylvania, which Trump visited on Tuesday.

Before he held his rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a struggling rust belt town that is majority Latino and home to more than 34,000 Puerto Ricans, Trump tried to distance himself from Hinchcliffe.

“I don’t know him; someone put him up there. I don’t know who he is,” Trump told ABC News.

Trump running mate JD Vance, meanwhile, tried to diminish the importance of the comedian’s crude remarks.

“We’re not going to restore the greatness of American civilization if we get offended at every little thing,” Vance said, telling reporters that “maybe it’s a stupid racist joke” or “maybe it’s not.”

Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6th District, who is House Majority Whip, attended the Madison Square Garden rally along with all other members of the GOP House leadership.

“The energy at Madison Square Garden was electric,” he said of the event in a post on X. “The great American recovery begins when we return @RealDonaldTrump to the White House.”

Meanwhile, the Harris campaign quickly put out a TV ad that featured the comedian’s remarks and enlisted Puerto Rican actress Jennifer Lopez and Mexican-American rock group Mana to join Harris at a Halloween evening campaign event in swing state Nevada.

But then President Biden stepped on Harris’ message.

“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American,” Biden said during a get-out-the-vote call hosted by Voto Latino. “It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”

Trump donned an orange vest and rode around Green Bay, Wisconsin, in a Trump-branded garbage truck to fuel the backlash from those who say Biden had called his supporters “garbage.”

Walz watch

Walz began his week in Nevada where he attended a Raiders watch party and said Trump has descended into madness in recent weeks, drawing a comparison between Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally and an infamous Nazi rally in the arena in 1939.

Then it was on to North Carolina, where hurricane-hit Asheville was among his many stops, and to Pennsylvania, which has become the most important state in the election with its coveted 19 electoral votes.

Walz will end the week campaigning in swing states Nevada and Arizona, where he was last weekend to make a pitch to tribal nations.

During last weekend’s visit to those western states, Walz, wearing a beaded turquoise necklace, visited the Navajo nation, the country’s most populous tribe.

“We’re here because we’re not taking any vote for granted, and we’re here to show respect to the Navajo Nation and earn your vote,” Walz said.

In case you missed it

Your questions and comments

A reader asked us about MinnPost policy regarding the endorsement of presidential candidates and others running for office after the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and Minnesota Star Tribune announced they would not issue endorsements this year.

“Has MinnPost endorsed any candidates for this year‘s elections?” the reader asked. “Many of us are frustrated that the Star Tribune and the Washington Post and other newspapers have finked out on their responsibility to use their expertise and their knowledge about politicians to suggest who might be best for the job. I haven’t been able to find any of your endorsements or even any letters to the editor, so MinnPost seems to have fallen through the cracks or taken the easy way out as well. What is your excuse?”

Well, it’s not an excuse but we are proscribed by the IRS from making political endorsements. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit we can’t make political endorsements and never have. Newspapers like The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post are privately owned and don’t have to abide by the same rules as nonprofits.

A few readers said they liked our profile of Gwen Walz.

“An old, retired history teacher myself, my bias is in favor of teachers — imperfect as they might be, like the rest of us — in public office,” the reader wrote. “That’s especially the case if they’ve been in the classroom for a number of years and have accumulated some experience. And, dare I say it? English teachers may be able to deal with subtlety, both providing it and understanding it, a little better than football coaches, though Tim Walz is, in my experience as a head coach of a women’s sport, pretty unusual as football coaches go.”

Another reader wrote: “Appreciate the article. It seems you can tell a lot about a candidate by the demeanor and character of their spouses. Maybe behind every good man, there is an equally and possibly more profoundly good woman.”

Please keep your comments, and any questions, coming. I’ll try my best to respond. Please contact me at aradelat@minnpost.com.

Ana Radelat

Ana Radelat

Ana Radelat is MinnPost’s Washington, D.C. correspondent. You can reach her at aradelat@minnpost.com or follow her on Twitter at @radelat.