Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe revealed that his motivation for speaking at President Donald Trump’s massive rally in New York last year was not the paycheck but rather a bid to get people to vote for the president. He contends that the current president gets a “weird rap” from the general public.
Hinchcliffe, a comedian and podcaster, was the first speaker after the national anthem was performed at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in New York just before the Nov. 5 election. At the rally, the comedian went viral for a joke in which he said that Puerto Rico is a “floating island of garbage.”
Hinchcliffe explained to late-night host Bill Maher on Sunday that he only discovered that he was the event’s first speaker when he arrived to the rally, adding that he did not partake in the event to earn “a paycheck.”
“I did it, literally, to hopefully get some, hopefully, if only 10,000, not to mention 100,000, maybe 200 if we’re lucky, actual people to vote for him,” Hinchcliffe stated on Maher’s Club Random podcast.
Hinchcliffe added that he personally thinks Trump gets “a weird, weird rap” in the world. Beyond attempting to swing voters, the comedian also said he had hoped to receive thanks from Trump for getting “the crowd going” at his rally, though he acknowledged that he did not get the chance to talk to the president afterward.
Hinchcliffe and Maher also reflected on the comparisons some have made between Trump and Adolf Hitler, which Hinchcliffe harshly criticized and deemed “such an insult to the Jewish people.” Maher agreed, calling the comparison “quite insulting.”
While Hinchcliffe’s Madison Square Garden appearance and his joke on Puerto Rico created some controversy ahead of the 2024 election, Vice President JD Vance encouraged people to “take a chill pill and take a joke.” Hinchcliffe deemed Vance “a bada**” for defending his comments, noting how the vice president called Hinchcliffe “a comedian defending free speech.”
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Following the controversy on Hinchcliffe’s Puerto Rico joke, the comedian revealed that he intends to apologize “to absolutely nobody,” citing how “I go hard” in his insult comedy, and that this was “never going to change.”
Besides Vance, fellow comedian Jon Stewart also defended Hinchcliffe’s Puerto Rico joke, citing how the insult comedian was “really just doing what he does!” Stewart also joked that Hinchcliffe speaking at Trump’s rally and not telling offensive jokes would be like Beyonce attending a rally for former Vice President Kamala Harris and not performing any musical numbers, referencing how Beyonce did just that in an appearance at a Harris rally.