Jon Stewart defends Tony Hinchcliffe after racist joke controversy at Trump rally

Jon Stewart has admitted he finds Tony Hinchcliffe “very funny” following the comedian’s widely criticized remarks at Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally.

On Monday (October 28), the Daily Show host dedicated his opening monologue to discussing the Republican presidential nominee’s rally in New York City on Sunday evening, which has since been condemned by celebrities and politicians alike for the many racist and vulgar remarks made by speakers at the event.

Among the speakers at the rally, which included Tucker Carlson and David Rem, Hinchcliffe perhaps received the biggest pushback after calling Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean,” as well as other offensive comments aimed at Jewish and Black Americans.

As Stewart showed a clip from Hinchcliffe’s opening act, along with the multiple TV news anchors who subsequently criticized his jokes, the 61-year-old comedian took the opportunity to defend Hinchcliffe.

“Obviously, in retrospect, having a roast comedian come to a political rally a week before election day and roasting a key voting demographic, probably not the best decision by the campaign politically,” Stewart said. “But to be fair, the guy’s just really doing what he does.”

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He then highlighted a video of Hinchcliffe’s set at the live Netflix comedy roast of Tom Brady, which took place earlier this year. Hinchcliffe has made a career out of writing jokes for celebrities on Comedy Central Roast, and offers brutal feedback to aspiring comedians on his podcast Kill Tony, which he co-hosts with Brian Redban.

After Stewart played a supercut of jokes from Hinchcliffe’s Roast of Tom Brady set, he couldn’t help but laugh at the controversial comedian’s segment.

“Yes, yes, of course, terrible, boo. There’s something wrong with me. I find that guy very funny. I’m sorry, I don’t know what to tell you,” Stewart admitted.

“I mean, bringing him to a rally and having him not do roast jokes? That’d be like bringing Beyoncé to a rally and not…,” he added, referencing the fact that Beyoncé gave a speech at a recent Kamala Harris rally rather than a performance.

Hinchcliffe has since doubled down on his controversial jokes made at the MSG rally. When Minnesota Governor and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz branded the comedian a “jackwad” for his racist remarks, Hinchcliffe hit back at Walz in a post shared to X/Twitter.

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“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,” the comedian wrote on Sunday.

“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.”

Hinchcliffe’s comments have also caught the attention of Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny, who immediately endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris by sharing a campaign video with his 45 million Instagram followers. Jennifer Lopez took the opportunity to share her support for Harris by reposting the video with emojis of the Puerto Rican flag and a ballot box, signaling she had voted for the Democratic presidential nominee.

Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin also shared the clip of Hinchcliffe’s offensive joke on Instagram and said: “This is what they think of us. Vote for @kamalaharris.”

Trump’s re-election campaign has since attempted to distance itself from Hinchcliffe’s comments on Puerto Rico. In a statement, senior Trump adviser Danielle Alvarez claimed the joke “does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”