Youngstown native Tony Hinchcliffe is under fire from Democrats and Republicans for making lewd and racist remarks about Latinos, blacks, Jews and Palestinians during a Republican Donald Trump presidential rally in New York City.

As the opening speaker at Sunday’s Trump rally in Madison Square Garden, Hinchcliffe, who hosts the “Kill Tony” podcast and is a 2002 Ursuline High School graduate, said: “These Latinos, they love making babies too. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside, just like they did to our country.”

He followed that up with: “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. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”

Latinos make up a key voting constituency in the presidential election.

After the statement, Hinchcliffe laughed and said, “Republicans are the party with a good sense of humor,” despite some of his jokes meeting with mixed results including the Puerto Rico line.

The Trump campaign said regarding Hinchcliffe’s comment on Puerto Rico, the “joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”

The campaign didn’t mention the Latino statement or comments Hinchcliffe made about blacks, Jews or Palestinians.

He pointed to a black man in the audience with a covering on his head and asked if it was a “lampshade” and then said they were at a Halloween party the previous night where they “carved watermelons together,” a racist stereotype.

Hinchcliffe then said Israel and Palestinians should settle their conflict by playing rocks, paper, scissors.

He said: “You know the Palestinians are going to throw rocks every time and you know the Jews have a hard time throwing that paper. You know what I’m saying?” in reference to a trope that Jewish people are stingy with money.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, said of Hinchcliffe: “Who is that jack-wad? Who is that guy?”

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, posted on X, formerly Twitter, of Hinchcliffe’s comment on Puerto Rico: “This joke bombed for a reason. It’s not funny and it’s not true. Puerto Ricans are amazing people and amazing Americans!”

U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Florida Republican, posted she was “disgusted by” Hinchcliffe’s “racist comment” and “this does not reflect GOP values.”

U.S. Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, a New York Republican, whose mother was born and raised in Puerto Rico, posted: “The only thing that’s ‘garbage’ was a bad comedy set. Stay on message.”

Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman Chris Anderson said party members were disgusted to hear the comments about Puerto Rico, blacks, Jews and Palestinians and “even more disgusted to learn that Tony Hinchcliffe is from Mahoning County.”

Anderson said: “The populations that this low-budget hack decided to villainize account for nearly 25% of our county’s population. The roughly 54,000 people that make up these communities deserve better than this and the people who enable these kinds of disgusting viewpoints.”

Anderson added: “They’re not punchlines in a joke — we’d expect better from anyone, but especially from a Mahoning County native who has seen first-hand how our community benefits because it is comprised of so many different groups of people.”

Anderson said, “It’s time that Republicans up and down the ballot either reject this or acknowledge that they are fine with this awful rhetoric.”

Mahoning County Republican Party Chairman Tom McCabe said of Hinchcliffe: “Wrong place, wrong time. He should have been vetted better, but he’s doing a comedy act. Democratic comments about Nazis are a lot worse and divide our country.”

Despite the criticism, Hinchcliffe didn’t back down.

He posted on X, “These people have no sense of humor. 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…watch the whole set. I’m a comedian. Tim … might be time to change your tampon.”

Other speakers at Trump’s Sunday event at Madison Square Garden called Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, “the devil,” “the antichrist,” and that Harris “and her pimp handlers will destroy our country,” according to the Associated Press.

While Hinchcliffe is a Trump supporter, he told The Plain Dealer in an article published July 20, 2016, after Trump was officially nominated at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland: “This Trump thing is insane, right? I feel like it’s a test from our government to see if we should still be allowed to vote for president. I feel like if Trump wins, the curtain behind him falls, and we see five old white guys with microphones and we meet the Illuminati for the first time. They’re just like, ‘Whoa, whoa, we have to step in here.'”

Hinchcliffe has hosted the popular “Kill Tony” podcast since 2013, had a stand-up comedy special on Netflix in 2016, has written scripts for celebrity roasts and is known for his politically incorrect humor.

Hinchcliffe grew up on Youngstown’s North Side and told sister paper The Vindicator in an article published Oct. 26, 2023, the day before he performed at Powers Auditorium, that his comedy is “Youngstown. My style is rugged, dark, defiant, honest, and I try to keep it as exciting as possible for the people.”

He said, “I was watching houses get arsoned down when I was a little kid and torn down. I was in the real nuclear centrifuge of the danger zone in Youngstown. I had always just assumed everywhere in the country you could always hear a police siren if you just listened hard enough. I had no idea that was a soundtrack to Youngstown.”

When he moved to Los Angeles in 2007 to pursue a comedy career, Hinchcliffe said, “That’s when I realized I was raised somewhere (expletive) crazy.”

Hinchcliffe exaggerated the crime in Youngstown telling Variety in an April 26 article: “I had a crazy childhood in a rough, tough neighborhood. At the time, it was the crime capital of America; Youngstown, Ohio, averaging about a murder a day with a population of about 40,000 people.”

That would equal 365 murders in a year. The high point of murders in Youngstown was 1995 with 68. Also, the city’s population was about 95,000 in the 1990s.

dskolnick@vindy.com