Kamala Harris stopped at a Puerto Rican restaurant in Reading while campaigning. Here's what she ordered
Vice President Kamala Harris and Former President Donald Trump both held campaign events in Pennsylvania on the final day before Election Day, and both made sure to visit Reading, a city of close to 100,000 people that is two-thirds Hispanic and could be significant to winning the Keystone State.
At a Trump rally in Reading, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, a Cuban American, spoke to Trump supporters in Spanish. Rubio told them that Spanish "sounds more passionate" and asked for understanding as he jokingly said he spoke Cuban.
"But the Boricuas will understand," he said, referring to a term used for Puerto Ricans, "and the Dominicans, too."
Trump, he said in Spanish, is "the only candidate who from now on says you will be a priority, not shipping jobs abroad, not sending factories to other countries, not worrying about the needs of people from other countries," he said.
Harris devoted much of the day to reaching Latino voters in the state considered part of the "blue wall" Democrats have relied upon to win the Electoral College.
As part of that effort, Harris' campaign and other Democrats spent the last hours of the 2024 campaign in the nation's largest battleground state linking Trump to comic Tony Hinchcliffe's slam on Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage."
The comments were made at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden and cost the Republican candidate the endorsement of popular Puerto Rican artist Nicky Jam. Meanwhile, superstar Bad Bunny, also from Puerto Rico, endorsed Harris.
Reading was just one stop for Harris as she crisscrossed Pennsylvania on Monday.
In the Berks County city, a crowd gathered outside a Puerto Rican restaurant called Old San Juan Cafe to catch a glimpse of the vice president. Flanked by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Harris asked diners about the restaurant and what kind of food she should order to go, opting for a bag of plantains, cassava and rice.
Harris, Trump campaigns work to court Latino voters in Pennsylvania
Reading Mayor Eddie Moran, the first Latino to hold the office in his city's 276-year history, said he found it ironic that the next president "is going to potentially be decided by Pennsylvania, but even more so by Latinos," in communities like Reading, by "some of the individuals that in the past have been least respected to make that decision."
"He continues to insult us to coming knocking at our door here in Reading, a community that is 70% Latino. And of those, about 30,000 are Puerto Ricans," Moran said of Trump on Monday. "And yet, here he is in a rally today. How insulting is that?"
Harris also catered to Puerto Rican voters in Allentown, where she touted her "longstanding commitment" to the island, whose residents are American citizens but who don't get a say in the Electoral College.
Fat Joe, a rapper with Puerto Rican heritage, spoke shortly before Harris and urged voters to support the Democrat.
"The other day at Madison Square Garden, that was no joke, ladies and gentlemen. That was no joke," Fat Joe said. "Calling Puerto Rico the island of garbage, my Latinos, where is your pride?"
In Trump's rally at Reading's Santander Arena, Rubio didn't directly address Hinchcliffe's joke and neither did Trump. Instead, the former president has hailed his relationship with the island, saying "we helped Puerto Rico more than anybody."
In September 2020, after criticism for a slow response to Hurricane Maria in 2017, Trump released $13 billion in assistance to repair years-old hurricane damage. It took Trump two weeks to visit the island after the storm. He was criticized for an appearance where he threw rolls of paper towels into a crowd.
Emilio Feliciano, 43, dismissed the joke. While his family is Puerto Rican, he said he cared more about the economy and still plans to vote for Trump on Tuesday.
"Boo hoo. We've got bigger fish to fry. I will never cry over Puerto Rico being called garbage," he said at the Reading event. "Is the border going to be safe? Are you going to keep crime down? That's what I care about."
But Luis Colon, 45, a Puerto Rican who lives in Reading, walked into the same rally even as he planned to vote for Harris. He said the comments at the Trump rally were a "disgrace."
"I'm just going in to see the stupidity, the nonsense. I don't vote for Trump; I don't root for Trump. Trump is not going for the Latinos; he's against us. Trump is going to throw us under the bus," Colon said.
