Donald Trump’s disgraceful rally at Madison Square Garden is the capstone of a campaign that has long been defined by its mask-off bigotry. Yet even by the standards of Trump’s past overt racism, last weekend’s foray into anti-Puerto Rican hate speech managed to break new ground in the Republican Party’s far-right transformation.

The result is a GOP scrambling to address a nationwide outcry among Puerto Rican voters who feel targeted by the right’s mocking description of their homeland as a “floating island of garbage.” Anyone who has followed Republicans’ accelerating descent into race-baiting grievance knew a night like this was coming. Still, Trump’s team didn’t hesitate to load conservative comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s cringe-inducing comments into the teleprompter.

Trump’s hate-fest in New York is another warning to voters about the grim future he offers the American people. If Trump prevails next week, his second term will look an awful lot like that chaotic and bitter rally.

That won’t be the case if the nation’s Puerto Rican voters have anything to say about it.

It’s clear senior Republicans recognize the potential political fallout from Trump’s big rally at the Garden. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who is locked in a close re-election fight........

© The Hill