’Horribly offensive’: Fury as Tim Walz compares Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden to Nazi rally
Donald Trump held a sold-out rally at New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden on Sunday. But opponents seized on his choice of venue with a disturbing comparison.
Stunning scenes of 20,000 New Yorkers crammed into a sold-out Madison Square Garden to catch a glimpse of Donald Trump has sparked controversy.
Democrats and outspoken critics say the presidential hopeful invoked the image of a 1939 pro-Nazi rally which took place in the same historic venue before World War II.
The extraordinary allegation was first made by Hillary Clinton on Thursday and repeated by Kamala Harris’ running mate Tim Walz at an event near Las Vegas on Sunday.
“Donald Trump’s got this big rally going at Madison Square Garden,” Walz said.
“There’s a direct parallel to a big rally that happened in the mid-1930s at Madison Square Garden.
“And don’t think that he doesn’t know for one second exactly what they’re doing there. So, look, we said we’re all running like everything’s on the line because it is.”
MSG was at max capacity on Sunday afternoon, with an estimated 20,000 more people piled into nearby bars and lining the streets in the heart of the city after being turned away.
Inside, Trump riled up the crowd with swipes at Harris.
“You’ve destroyed our country. We’re not going to take it anymore, Kamala,” he said.
‘Offensive’: Fury over Nazi comparison
Republicans were quick to point out Hillary Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, accepted the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination at MSG.
In fact, the iconic venue – the home of New York Knicks basketball and New York Rangers Hockey – has hosted four Democratic conventions and one Republican convention in the past.
Trump 2024 senior adviser Tim Murtaugh erupted over the “offensive” comparison, saying Walz and Clinton “should be ashamed of themselves.”
“It is belittling to what actually happened in Europe at the hands of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust that killed 6 million Jews,” Murtaugh said.
“To make light of that by trying to score political points against your American opponent three quarters of a century later is horribly offensive.”
Inside the stadium, some of the speakers also railed against the Nazi comparison.
Long-time Trump supporter Hulk Hogan ripped his shirt off and told the crowd: “I don’t see any stinkin’ Nazis here.”
“I don’t see no stinking domestic terrorists. All I see in here is a bunch of hardworking men and women that are hardworking Americans,” the WWE star, 71, continued.
Alina Habba, one of Trump’s lawyers, told the crowd “they’re now scrambling and trying to call us Nazis and fascists.”
Republicans lined up to rip into Walz on Monday for his comments.
“I was there last night & saw thousands of patriotic Americans of all races, religions, and creeds. Tim Walz should apologize to them,” Congressman Mike Waltz wrote on X.
“Tim Walz smearing tens of thousands of Americans as Nazis, including a Holocaust survivor in attendance, is more offensive than any joke,” Rep. Jim Banks added.
Backlash over TV station’s coverage of rally
American TV station MSNBC is facing fierce backlash for using Nazi rally clips during its coverage of Trump’s campaign event.
The network included footage from the 1939 Nazi rally at the New York City arena and compared it to Trump’s own rally, which packed the famed venue.
“But that jamboree happening right now, you see it there on your screen in that place is particularly chilling because in 1939, more than 20,000 supporters of a different fascist leader, Adolf Hitler, packed the Garden for a so-called pro-America rally,” anchor Jonathan Capehart said.
The juxtaposition of the two videos was blasted as “shameful” by conservatives, who pointed out the diversity of the crowd.
“Yesterday’s Trump rally was filled with Americans from every walk of life including orthodox, conservative, reform, and secular Jews. I saw a woman in a burka. It wasn’t anything like a Nazi rally. Shame on MSNBC,” wrote one X user.
Others pointed out that Holocaust survivor Jerry Wartski was among those in attendance.
Billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk, who spoke at the rally, also blasted MSNBC as the “scum of the Earth” on X.
Comedian’s racist joke sparks widespread condemnation
Meanwhile, MAGA comedian Tony Hinchcliffe sparked fierce outrage after hurling insults against Latinos in a series of purported jokes during his opener at the rally.
Hinchcliffe took aim at birth-rates among Latinos and called the Caribbean US territory Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage”.
Those comments drew a swift rebuke from Mr Walz, who was doing a live Twitch gaming session with Republican Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“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,” he said.
Democrats and Republicans were quick to condemn the comments.
“As a Puerto Rican, I am tempted to call Hinchcliffe racist garbage, but doing so would be an insult to garbage. When casting their ballots at the voting booth, Latinos should never forget the racism that Donald Trump seems all too willing to platform,” Rep. Ritchie Torres said.
Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat, noted the state is home to almost half a million Puerto Ricans and nearly three quarters are able to vote.
“This rhetoric does not reflect GOP values,” María Elvira Salazar, a Republican representative from Florida, wrote on X.
Chairman of the Republican Party of Puerto Rico Ángel Cintrón called the comments “unfortunate, ignorant and entirely reprehensible”
Ricky Martin, the Puerto Rican superstar with 18.6 million followers on Instagram, quickly shared a video of Harris’s appeal to Puerto Rican voters, along with a clip of Hinchcliffe’s remarks.
“This is what they think of us,” Martin wrote in Spanish. “Vote for Kamala Harris.”
Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny also showed support for the vice president by sharing one of her videos to his 45.6 million followers on Instagram.
The Trump campaign was also quick to distance itself from Hinchcliffe’s offensive set.
“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” spokesperson Danielle Alvarez said in a statement.
Hinchcliffe shrugged off the backlash.
“These people have no sense of humor,” he shot back on X next to a clip of Walz’s rebuke.
“Wild that a vice presidential candidate would take time out of his ‘busy schedule’ to analyze a joke taken out of context to make it seem racist.”
“I love Puerto Rico and vacation there. I made fun of everyone,” he added. “Watch the whole set. I’m a comedian Tim … might be time to change your tampon.”
- With AFP
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