Puerto Rican stars 'Bad Bunny' and Ricky Martin have indicated their support for Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming US Presidential election on November 5.
Tony Hinchcliffe, a comedian and podcast host, assailed Puerto Rico at Donald Trump’s New York rally. “There’s a lot going on, like, I don’t know if you know this but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah. I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” he had said.
Notably, Puerto Rico is a US territory.
Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, known as Bad Bunny, enjoys a loyal following of over 45 million on Instagram. He posted a clip of Harris' proposals for the island on the social media platform.
The support from the stars comes at a time when both Harris and Trump campaigns have been vying for the Puerto Rican vote, especially in battleground Pennsylvania, where about 5,00,000 Puerto Ricans live.
In the video, which Bad Bunny reshared multiple times with a focus on Trump, Harris said, “I will never forget what Donald Trump did and what he did not do when Puerto Rico needed a caring and competent leader.”
“He abandoned the island, tried to block aid after back-to-back devastating hurricanes and offered nothing more than paper towels and insults,” she added.
While, Ricky Martin, another Puerto Rican pop star, wrote in a post to his 18 million followers on Instagram: “This is what they think of us. Vote for @kamalaharris.”
In 2017, thousands of people died in Puerto Rico because of Hurricane Maria. Shortly after, Hurricane Irma caused mass power outages throughout the island.
While assessing the damage in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria, the then-President Trump faced criticism for tossing supplies, such as paper towels, to the island's residents.
Bad Bunny's post on Sunday marked the artist's first show of support as the Harris campaign seeks to bolster its celebrity endorsements.
According to CNN's source, Harris campaign officials had been in conversation with Bad Bunny’s team hoping to have him lend his support to the vice president’s plan for Puerto Rico.
“This has been a thoughtful and deliberate approach focused on the issues,” CNN reported citing source.
A representative for Bad Bunny told CNN that his repost of Harris’ video on Instagram was “not an endorsement,” but that he is “supporting” Harris.
“Benito’s political focus has always been on Puerto Rico,” his representative told CNN. His representative did not indicate whether a formal endorsement would be coming from the musician ahead of the election.
Earlier Sunday, Kamala Harris visited a Puerto Rican restaurant in Philadelphia, where she spoke about challenges Puerto Rico faces and discussed her policies focused on the island.
“I’m going to create an opportunity economy task force for Puerto Rico,” she said, adding that she wants to focus on two things: building economic opportunity for the island and improving the electrical grid.
