Anthony Scaramucci says 'garbage' comments made at Trump rally have 'lit up' Puerto Ricans - and could swing election

2 November 2024, 09:31 | Updated: 2 November 2024, 09:37

Anthony Scaramucci, former White House communications director, said comments made about Puerto Rico at a Donald Trump rally in New York have "lit up" Puerto Ricans in the US - and could influence the outcome of the upcoming election.

At the rally earlier this week, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe referred to Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage".

The comments have been windely condemned - including by a number of high-profile Puerto Ricans such as Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Bad Bunny.

In an interview with Saxo, Scaramucci told LBC the backlash from the comments made at the Trump rally have "really hurt him".

He added the infammatory comments have "lit up" Puerto Ricans in the US - and could change the election outcome in key swing states.

"There's 400,000 of them in Pennsylvania. And if 250,000 of them are of voting age and 10% of them vote for Harris, she wins Pennsylvania."

Pennsylvania is widely considered a swing or "battleground" state. Its electoral outcomes are closely contested in presidential elections, with it frequently shifting between Democratic and Republican candidates over the years.

'Law breaker'

In the interview on Friday, Scaramucci spoke about his former role in the White House and his relationship with Donald Trump when asked by Flaminia Luck from LBC News.

She asked: "You’ve been both a supporter and a critic of Donald Trump, not only for his handling of the pandemic - but as well his language and behaviour. I imagine there was a turning point for you during his administration.

"With the upcoming election, has Trump done anything recently that reminded you of that turning point? Has there been perhaps a specific moment that you felt was particularly disappointing or unforgivable? For example, the comments made at the Madison Square Garden rally about Puerto Rico?"

In response, Scaramucci said: "I've tried to tell people this, and you could ask General Kelly and others. He is a lawbreaker. He is a rule stretcher.

"And so the reason I got fired so quickly from the White House, I just wasn't willing to do certain things that he wanted me to do. Just wasn't willing to do them.

Anthony Scaramucci agrees with Kamala Harris that Donald Trump is a 'fascist'

"To give you an example. first of all, he wanted me to go into the press room and lie for him.

"He wanted me to say certain things, that were exaggerations or I can't remember the specifics.

"I said, "Look, I’m just not willing to and I can't do that." 

"Second thing he did, he wanted to veto the Russian sanctions bill. It's not illegal for him to do that. But I pointed out in front of a large room that if he did that, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan who are on his team are going to go to Chuck Schumer and get the veto overridden.

"He didn't know. I mean, that's eighth grade social studies in the United States, but he didn't know that you could get the veto overridden. And so I embarrassed him. So that was another reason.

'Deep stater'

"Then the last thing about it was he said to me he wanted to release some classified information.

"I just couldn't release it. It had to do with the Russians and it was to provide evidence that he personally didn't collude with the Russians.

"I said, "Look, we can't release either because there's human intelligence involved with this stuff and somebody could die that's an American agent."

Then he called me a deep stater. He said, "You're a deep stater."

I'm like, "Dude, I've only been to Washington one time, on a school field trip. I'm not a deep stater. I'm an Italian kid from Long Island." Okay.

Then Kelly, he said, "Look, I'm sorry. He doesn't want you working here. I got to fire you." I said, "No problem."

'Really hurt him'

"I think this Madison Square Garden rally really hurt him.

"I think for Americans to call Puerto Rico a pile of garbage and yes you'll say okay it was a comedian blah blah.

"No, it's a comedian warming up for a potential future president.

"If it was a comedian warming up for Bill Maher, it's a different thing.

"I think that really lit up the Puerto Ricans in this country.

"There's 400,000 of them in Pennsylvania. And if 250,000 of them are of voting age and 10% of them vote for Harris, she wins Pennsylvania."

Saxo will be providing coverage for the US election which takes place next week on November 5.