ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Donald Trump, faced with calls from some allies to apologize for speakers' racist remarks at his weekend rally, took the opposite approach Tuesday. He said it was an “honor to be involved in such an event and calling.” the scene a “lovefest” — the same term he used to describe the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump gathered supporters and reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort, two days after a large rally at Madison Square Garden that featured a series of crude remarks from various speakers, including a line from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe in which he joked that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of trash.” Some of Trump's key Republican allies have condemned the remarks, and his campaign took the rare step of publicly distancing themselves from Hinchcliffe's joke, but not the other comments.

But when Trump was given the opportunity to apologize at several events and in interviews on Tuesday, he instead leaned forward. At his Florida resort, he said that “there has never been an event as beautiful” as his Sunday rally in his hometown of New York.

“The love in this room. It was breathtaking,” he said. “It was like a lovefest, an absolute lovefest. And it was an honor to be a part of it.”

On Tuesday night, he told Fox News' Sean Hannity that he knew nothing about Hinchcliffe, but said, “I can't imagine it's a big deal.” However, he later agreed that “he probably shouldn't have been there.” “.

Just a week before Election Day, some Trump allies have expressed concern that the rally, intended to highlight the Republican presidential candidate's final message in grand New York style, has served as a distraction and even a burden, given the importance of the election to Puerto Ricans, who live in Pennsylvania and other key swing states.

“This is not the time to let anyone criticize Puerto Rico or Latinos,” former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who challenged Trump for the GOP presidential nomination and later endorsed him, said in an interview with Fox News Channel .

Trump later held a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a city with a large Hispanic population, where Puerto Rico's shadow U.S. Sen. Zoraida Buxo joined him and defended the former president's record.

“We need this man as our commander in chief,” said Buxo, who cannot vote in the Senate because Puerto Rico is not a state. “He will make us feel safe and he will protect us.”

Still, there was anger in Allentown. Ivet Figueroa, 61, stood outside the rally venue holding a trash can labeled “Trash Trump.”

She said of the insult and Trump: “The person who said it was vetted by him. So he allowed that to happen, so he needs to take responsibility for what he said. Now it's too late to apologize. I don’t want an apology, I want justice and justice will come on November 5th.”

The fallout from the Madison Square Garden event could highlight voters' concerns about Trump's rhetoric and penchant for controversy in the closing stages as both campaigns jockey for votes. Speakers at the rally also made racist comments against Latinos, blacks, Jews and Palestinians, as well as sexist insults against Trump's Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In an interview with ABC News early Tuesday, Trump claimed not to know Hinchcliffe but did not condemn what he said.

“I do not know him. Someone put him up there. “I don’t know who he is,” Trump said, according to the broadcaster, emphasizing that he had not heard Hinchcliffe’s comments. When asked what he thought, Trump “did not take the opportunity to denounce them and reiterated that he had not heard the comments,” ABC reported.

In the Hannity interview, Trump said people were trying to make the comedian's appearance a “big deal” even though he “has nothing to do with the party and nothing to do with us.”

Asked later in the interview if he wished the comic wasn't there, Trump said: “Yeah, I don't know if it's a big deal or not, but I don't want anyone to have bad jokes or stupid ones “I'm kidding.” He added: “He probably shouldn't have been there, yeah.”

Later Tuesday, in a call organized by the Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino, President Joe Biden condemned the comedian's joke, saying, “The only trash I see floating out there is his supporters.” He later tried to clarify his comment and said he was talking about “the hateful rhetoric from Trump’s supporters about Puerto Rico.”

The comments about the rally at Madison Square Garden sparked outrage among Puerto Rican leaders.

The archbishop of Puerto Rico called on Trump to disavow her, saying it was not enough for the campaign to say the joke did not reflect Trump's views. The president of Puerto Rico's Republican Party called Hinchcliffe's “poor attempt at comedy” “disgraceful, ignorant and completely reprehensible.”

In Pennsylvania, where Trump campaigned on Tuesday evening, the number of Latino voters has almost tripled since 2000. More than half of them are Puerto Rican voters.

Angelo Ortega, a longtime Allentown resident and former Republican who plans to vote for Harris, said he couldn't believe what he heard about Trump's rally.

“I don’t know if my jaw dropped or if I was just so irritated and angry. I didn’t know what to feel,” said Ortega, who was born in New York but whose father was from Puerto Rico. Ortega has campaigned for Harris and said he knows of at least one Hispanic GOP voter planning to switch from Trump to Harris because of Hinchcliffe's comments.

“You did it. You did it. They listened to (Trump), but they said they think this was like the last straw,” said Ortega, a member of the advocacy group Make the Road PA.

Still, some voters of Puerto Rican descent remained unimpressed. Maricelis Torres, 24, a waitress training to be a radiologist, was waiting to attend the rally in Allentown and said she and her family laughed at Hinchcliffe's joke.

“If you don't understand humor, I'll say this: People are way too soft these days,” said Torres, whose father is from the island.

The Harris campaign has released an ad running online in battleground states aimed at Puerto Rican voters that highlights the comedian's remarks.

At a roundtable outside Philadelphia on Tuesday afternoon, Trump received some praise from Maribel Valdez, a retired occupational therapist from Puerto Rico. “Puerto Rico has your back and Puerto Rico loves you,” Valdez told him.

Trump thanked her and recalled his administration's efforts to help the island after storms. “I don’t think any president has ever done more for Puerto Rico than I have,” responded Trump, who delayed the release of billions in aid to repair years of hurricane damage in Puerto Rico until just before the 2020 election.

___

Gomez Licon and Price reported from Palm Beach, Florida. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York, Dánica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.