Puerto Rico comments not enough to penetrate a support base that’s heard it all before
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The Yankee Stadium stands tall in the South Bronx – like the Latino community that’s settled there through generations.
Many were attending Monday’s latest game in baseball’s World Series between the Yankees and LA Dodgers.
We mingled with the crowd before “doors open”. I wanted to ask Latino baseball fans attending the big event about the big event the day before – the Trump rally and a comedian’s description of Puerto Rico as “garbage”.
I chatted with half a dozen and there was offence taken, for sure, by some if not all. One man who lives in Puerto Rico said it was racism and unacceptable. Another replied that it was a joke by a comedian, no more, and that Latinos had a sense of humour. Four others told me they either didn’t have a view or didn’t care.
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It was a limited measure of opinion, clearly, but the opinions within a 100sq m reflected a degree of apathy, at least, and a suggestion that real life doesn’t reflect the fevered debate of the political class – not for the first time.
It would match the expectations of the Trump campaign. However ugly and threatening the remarks about Puerto Rico will be to many, it won’t necessarily be enough to penetrate a support base that’s heard it all before.
Republican assessment of the Latino vote is that it has drifted their way in numbers that aren’t overwhelming, by any means, but are big enough to make small but important gains in battleground states.
Team Trump is confident its campaign can withstand another bad script.
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It is a view that confounds the certain belief among his opponents that an erosion of decency, as they would have it, will diminish his support.
It is a problem for Democrats. The “joyful opportunity” phase of the Harris campaign only took her so far and now the polls are sticking. Her campaign has renewed a focus on Trump as it frames him as the political bogeyman.
It is a message the Harris campaign has communicated throughout, to varying degrees. Its emphasis now reflects a wish for momentum in her support that takes her beyond where she stands today and closes her campaign with a cohesion that hasn’t delivered the figures she wants.
