Category Archives: 2024 elections

Tony Hinchcliffe Apologises ‘To Absolutely Nobody’ For Trump Rally Puerto Rico Joke

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Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe is apologising “to absolutely nobody” for his controversial joke about Puerto Rico, which he likened last month to “a floating island of garbage” while endorsing Donald Trump for president with a stand-up set at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.

In the latest episode of his Kill Tony podcast, which was recorded the day after the rally but debuted on Monday, Hinchcliffe said the set was “about free speech” and rued being “under attack” by the pundits, celebrities and social media users who deemed the joke racist.

“I referenced Puerto Rico, which currently has a landfill problem in which all of their landfills are filled to the brim,” said Hinchcliffe on the podcast, which was recorded at Joe Rogan’s comedy club in Austin, Texas. “I am the only person who knew about this, unfortunately.”

Environmentalist bloggers and regional outlets have noted that Puerto Rico does have an actual problem regarding its garbage, and that a goal set in 1992 to increase the recycling rate to 35% has reportedly only reached between 9% and 14%.

“With that said, I just want to say that I love Puerto Ricans, they’re very smart people — they’re smart, they’re street smart, they’re smart enough to know when they’re being used as political fodder,” said Hinchcliffe on the podcast. “Right now that is happening.”

Hinchcliffe had set his joke up by welcoming migrants “with open arms,” before laughingly using those arms to wave said migrants away. He then noted “there’s a lot going on,” like “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean,” and delivered the vexing punchline: “I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”

“I apologise to absolutely nobody,” Hinchcliffe said on the podcast. “Not to the Puerto Ricans, not to the whites, not to the Blacks, not to the Palestinians, not to the Jews, and not to my own mother, who I made fun of during the set. Nobody clipped that.”

“No headlines about me making fun of my own mother,” he continued.

Hinchcliffe said Tuesday that “perhaps that ... wasn’t the best fucking place to do this set at.”
Hinchcliffe said Tuesday that “perhaps that … wasn’t the best fucking place to do this set at.”

Evan Vucci/Associated Press

The backlash was certainly substantial, as a lot of coverage suggested Hinchcliffe had killed any remaining chance Trump had at the presidency, and celebrities like Jennifer Lopez, Aubrey Plaza and Bad Bunny publicly denounced the joke — or Hinchcliffe himself.

Even Rogan, while certainly supportive of his arguable protégé, argued in the aftermath of the outrage that his stand-up should only be performed at comedy venues — and not at political rallies — but that Hinchcliffe merely delivered the crass humor he’s known for.

The native Ohioan is best known for his podcast, which had packed Madison Square Garden for two nights of sold-out shows in a row the month before Trump’s rally, but also broke a Netflix viewing record with “The Roast of Tom Brady” earlier this year.

“Perhaps that venue at that time wasn’t the best fucking place to do this set at,” said Hinchcliffe during the podcast. “But in any matter, to the mainstream media and to anybody trying to slander me online: That’s what I do, and that’s never going to change.”

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Ex-Obama Adviser Snidely Boils Down Harris Defeat To 1 Faction Of Democratic Party

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David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Barack Obama during his presidency, on Thursday said Democrats have “become a smarty-pants, suburban, college-educated party” ― and that led to Kamala Harris’ defeat in the White House race.

Many pundits have been upping their blame game in the aftermath of the 2024 election. But analysis from Axelrod, a strategist who successfully helped engineer both of Obama’s national campaigns, merits attention.

“I do have concerns about the way the Democratic Party relates to working-class voters in this country,” Axelrod told broadcaster Anderson Cooper on CNN. “The only group that Democrats gained with in the election on Tuesday was white college graduates. And among working-class voters, there was a significant decline.”

He continued to hammer home a point about the more affluent income bracket that Harris appealed to.

“The only group … Democrats won among were people who make more than $100,000 a year,” Axelrod said. “You can’t win national elections that way, and it certainly shouldn’t be that way for a party that fashions itself as the party of working people.”

Axelrod suggested snobbery played a part in Democrats’ failed messaging after President Joe Biden had helped working people.

“You can’t approach working people like missionaries and say, ‘We’re here to help you become more like us.’ There’s a kind of unspoken disdain, unintended disdain in that,” he said.

“I think Biden has done programmatically some good things for working people. But the party itself has increasingly become a smarty-pants, suburban, college-educated party, and it lends itself to the kind of backlash that we’ve seen.”

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), a Harris campaign co-chair, somewhat echoed Axelrod’s point in a separate conversation on CNN.

“There’s a lot of work to do to ensure that we communicate to folks that the Democratic Party is the party of working people, is the party that supports immigrants, is the party that supports the social safety net,” Garcia said.

H/T Mediaite

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Madonna Serves Up a ‘F**k Trump’ Cake With A Side Of Scathing Commentary

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Madonna didn’t sugarcoat her feelings as she revealed her utter disgust at President-elect Donald Trump’s looming return to the White House in her Instagram stories.

The pop star on Thursday first shared the picture of a cake with “Fuck Trump” written on top.

Then, the singer shared a picture of herself and said: “Trying to get my head around why a convicted felon, rapist, Bigot was chosen to lead our country because he’s good for the economy.”

Madonna has criticised Trump for years.

During his 2016 campaign, she shared video online of a Trump piñata being battered and criticised his sons (Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump), asking “How Big of. Pussy Do you have to BE to kill this Noble Animal for sport” after images of them posing with a dead leopard resurfaced.

When Trump did win eight years ago, she said it felt “like women betrayed us” with their support for him, and the following year she likened the heartbreak she experienced following Hillary Clinton’s loss to Trump to a breakup.

Midway through Trump’s first term, Madonna revealed how Trump’s presidency (and her son’s fledgling soccer career) prompted her to move to Portugal. “I felt like we needed a change, and I wanted to get out of America for a minute ― as you know, this is not America’s finest hour,” she said.

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Elizabeth Warren Spells Out What Democrats Must Do ‘With Urgency’ Before Trump Takes Power

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Thursday unveiled her plan for Democrats “to fight back” following Donald Trump’s decisive election win.

In an essay published by Time magazine, Warren detailed how lawmakers must “fight every fight in Congress,” Trump must be taken on “in the courts” and everyone should “focus on what each of us can do.”

Warren concluded, though, by saying that “Democrats currently in office must work with urgency.”

“While still in charge of the Senate and the White House, we must do all we can to safeguard our democracy,” she wrote. Warren urged Pentagon leaders to “issue a directive now reiterating that the military’s oath is to the Constitution.”

And Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) must “use every minute of the end-of-year legislative session to confirm federal judges and key regulators — none of whom can be removed by the next President,” she added.

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6 Historic Victories From The 2024 Election

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The 2024 election brought some historic victories for the country on Tuesday, which will see Congress welcome its first openly trans member and the Senate its first Korean American.

Here are some of the groundbreaking candidates elected on Tuesday:

It’s the first time in history two Black women will serve together in the Senate. It’s also the first time Delaware will have a female senator.

Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) and Maryland Democrat Angela Alsobrooks are projected to win their Senate races and will become the first two Black women to serve in the chamber simultaneously.

"From the bottom of my heart, I thank each and every Marylander. To serve this state, my home, is the honor of a lifetime," Angela Alsobrooks wrote on social media after her Senate victory.
“From the bottom of my heart, I thank each and every Marylander. To serve this state, my home, is the honor of a lifetime,” Angela Alsobrooks wrote on social media after her Senate victory.

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Individually, their victories are historic: Blunt Rochester is the first woman and the first Black person to win a Senate seat in Delaware, and Alsobrooks is the first Black person to win in Maryland.

“From the bottom of my heard, Delaware, thank you,” Blunt Rochester wrote on social media.

Only three other Black women have ever served in the chamber.

Andy Kim is elected as first Korean American in the Senate.

Rep. Andy Kim handily won the Senate race in New Jersey. The son of immigrants will become the first Korean American in the chamber and the third-youngest when he heads to Washington in January.

“I believe that the opposite of democracy is apathy, and, by extension, I hope that you see our campaign as a means of being the opposite of that helplessness,” he told supporters late Tuesday.

“Delaware has sent the message loud and clear," Sarah McBride said after her victory in a U.S. House race.
“Delaware has sent the message loud and clear,” Sarah McBride said after her victory in a U.S. House race.

Hannah Yoon/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Sarah McBride elected as the first openly trans member of Congress.

Sarah McBride, a progressive who ran on issues affecting workers and families, will become the first openly trans member of Congress. Her tenure in Washington comes amid an effort by Republicans to roll back the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans.

“Delaware has sent the message loud and clear that we must be a country that protects reproductive freedom, that guarantees paid leave and affordable child care for all our families, that ensures that housing and health care are available to everyone and that this is a democracy that is big enough for all of us,” she tweeted on X.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, will have its first Black mayor.

Monroe Nichols, a state representative, won his race to become the mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma, defeating a longtime Tulsa county commissioner.

“If there is anyone out there who still questions if Tulsa is a place where big things are possible, if there is anybody out there who doubts you can make an impact, tonight you got your answer,” Nichols said in a victory speech, according to the Tulsa World.

“It’s been a long time coming, and tonight, we made history.”

Monroe Nichols, seen in 2017, will become the new mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Monroe Nichols, seen in 2017, will become the new mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Pamela Goodwine will be the first Black woman on the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Pamela Goodwine made history once again on Tuesday after previously becoming the first Black woman in Lexington, Kentucky, to be a district judge and the first Black woman to become a circuit judge in the state. In 2018, she became the first Black woman to serve on the Kentucky Court of Appeals.

She won her election to the state Supreme Court, a victory she called an “honor,” after running a campaign based on “experience, honesty and a commitment to impartiality and the rule of law to protect and serve every citizen.”

Shomari Figures becomes just the fourth Black member sent to Congress from Alabama since Reconstruction.

Shomari Figures handily won his race for Congress, flipping a seat held previously held by Republicans after it was redrawn by a federal court.

“This journey that we are on now, this is the beginning of the work,” Figures told supporters after his victory, according to AL.com. “Today is great. We are grateful that we have the opportunity to sit here today and be elected and be put into a position to go do the work. But now we got to do the work.”

Alabama House member Shomari Figures speaks with reporters in Mobile on Tuesday before becoming the projected winner of Alabama's 2nd Congressional District.
Alabama House member Shomari Figures speaks with reporters in Mobile on Tuesday before becoming the projected winner of Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District.

Kim Chandler/Associated Press

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JD Vance Declines To Label Russia’s Vladimir Putin An ‘Enemy’ Of The US

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Senator JD Vance (Republican, Ohio) would not concede that Vladimir Putin is an “enemy” of the United States during an interview broadcast on Sunday, claiming that the country needs to be strategic about the way it speaks about the Russian president.

The Republican vice presidential nominee told NBC’s Meet The Press Putin is “clearly an adversary” and a “competitor,” but suggested it would be wrong to antagonise him by using stronger language against him that could hinder diplomacy efforts when it comes to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

“Well, we’re not in a war with him, and I don’t want to be in a war with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. I think that we should try to pursue avenues of peace,” he said.

Vance noted the US “obviously” has “adversarial interests” with Russia.

“We can condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and I have, and of course the president has. But we also need to engage in some smart diplomacy if we’re ever going to get out of the mess that [Vice President] Kamala Harris has left us in and get back to a posture of peace,” he continued.

Former President Donald Trump has blamed both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Joe Biden for the war breaking out. He has also said negotiating a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine would be one of his first orders of business as president-elect if he secures reelection.

Trump has also criticised the Biden administration’s efforts to continue sending assistance to Kyiv, while reportedly maintaining a cozy relationship with Putin, fuelling concern among Democratic lawmakers and US allies about the future of US aid to Ukraine in the event that he wins in November. The two men allegedly spoke on the phone several times since he left office, and Trump reportedly sent Putin Covid tests for his “personal use” in 2020, according to journalist Bob Woodward’s new book War.

While Trump’s campaign has denied the allegations contained in the book, the former president refused to answer whether he has spoken to Putin since January 2021.

“I don’t comment on that,” Trump told Bloomberg’s editor-in-chief John Micklethwait earlier this month. “But I will tell you that if I did, it’s a smart thing. If I’m friendly with people, if I can have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing and not a bad thing in terms of a country.”

Meanwhile, in the NBC interview, Vance insisted that the US would remain in the NATO military alliance under a Trump presidency.

But he also went on to say Americans “can’t be the policemen of the world,” claiming some NATO members, including Germany, need to spend more on defense, echoing Trump’s words.

“I think a very significant difference between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is Kamala Harris would like to use our tax dollars and our troops to subsidise Europeans not taking care of their own security,” Vance said. “Donald Trump wants Europe to step up big time to become a real ally of the United States and not just a dependent.”

This year, Germany met NATO’s target for members to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defence spending for the first time since the end of the Cold War in response to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, according to Reuters.

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