But when given the opportunity to apologize at events and in an interview, Trump bowed instead. Speaking at his resort in Florida, Trump said he had “never had a better event” than the Sunday rally in his hometown of New York.

“The love in that room. “It was breathtaking,” he said. “It was like a love fest, a total love fest. And it was an honor to be involved.

With just a week until Election Day, some of Trump’s allies have raised alarm that the rally, which was supposed to highlight the Republican presidential candidate’s closing message in stately New York style, was instead serving as a distraction and even a liability, given the importance of the election. Puerto Ricans living in Pennsylvania and other major states.

Trump will later hold a rally in the city of Allentown, which has a large Hispanic population, where he will be joined by Puerto Rico’s shadow U.S. Sen. Zoraida Buxo, according to a campaign official who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement. He voiced his support for Trump on social media site X, saying Trump was the “strong leader” Puerto Rico needed.

Still, there was anger in Allentown. Ivet Figueroa, 61, stood in front of the rally site with a trash can marked “Trash Trump.”

He said of the insult and Trump: “The person who said it has been vetted by himself. So he allowed this to happen, so he needs to take responsibility for what he said. It’s too late to say ‘I’m sorry’ now. “I don’t want an apology, I want justice and justice is on November 5.”

The Latino voter population in Pennsylvania has nearly tripled since 2000. More than half of them are Puerto Rican voters.

The results of the garden event risked highlighting voters’ concerns about Trump’s rhetoric and propensity for debate as both campaigns scramble for votes. Speakers at the rally also made racist comments targeting Latinos, Blacks, Jews and Palestinians, as well as sexist slurs directed at Trump’s Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

On Tuesday, Trump tried to move past the debate and back to Harris, breaking her opponent’s record on the border and inflation, saying she “broke it on every issue after another” and adding, “I’m going to fix it and fix it.” very fast.” He did not take any questions from journalists.

In an interview with ABC News earlier Tuesday, Trump attempted to distance himself from Hinchcliffe but did not condemn what he said.

“I don’t know him. Someone put it there. “I don’t know who he is,” Trump said, insisting he had not heard Hinchcliffe’s comments. When asked what he thought of them, Trump “did not take the opportunity to condemn them and repeated that he had not heard the comments,” ABC reported.

The comments sparked outrage from Puerto Rican leaders.

Puerto Rico’s archbishop called on Trump to deny them, saying it wasn’t enough for the campaign to say the joke did not reflect Trump’s views. The chairman of the Puerto Rican Republican Party called Hinchcliffe’s “poor attempt at comedy” “embarrassing, ignorant, and utterly reprehensible.”