Bernie Sanders speaks at a rally in downtown Madison, Wis. on Oct 28, 2024 | Photo by James Gould

With just under a week to go until Election Day, U.S. Rep.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) took to the stage Monday at the Overture theater in  Madison in front of a packed crowd.

During the rally to support Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, the progressive legislators also took the opportunity to address racist  jokes made by a comedian who described Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage” and talked about Black people carving watermelon at a Donald Trump rally in Madison Square Garden.

The remarks have  sparked outrage across the nation with Puerto Rican celebrities and performers taking to social media to show their disgust.

 Ocasio-Cortez said as a “Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx” she found the remarks “horrific.” Adding that the Trump campaign “knew exactly what they were doing.”

“They want us to think he’s not talking about me. He’s talking about some ‘other’,” she added.“It’s the same kind of logic that says a Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx has no business connecting with the community of Madison, Wisconsin.

“When we hear an individual, whether it’s Donald Trump or one of his cronies on a stage, talking about our fellow Americans as a pile of garbage, know that he’s talking about us, he’s talking about you,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

Madison and surrounding Dane County are Democratic strongholds, so this was a rally to generate even more noise and action for Kamala Harris.

Throughout the night and even during a mic-check, the phrase “every vote counts” in Wisconsin was repeated at various times.

In an attempt to create some kind of distance to from the racist joke controversy, Danielle Alvarez, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said in a statement that the Puerto Rico joke “does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”

Bernie Sanders, who took the stage as Ocasio-Cortez left the podium to a standing ovation,  focused his speech on uniting people across  the United States.

He began by criticizing Trump directly, calling him a “pathological liar.” 

Sanders also emphasized f protecting working-class people and expanding the  social safety net.

One of the biggest cheers of the night came after Sanders said: “We have got to cancel all medical debt in America.”

He also addressed the situation in Gaza. Sanders highlighted his frustration with the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s military response following the Oct. 7 attacks, which killed 1,200 Israelis and led to 250 hostages being taken captive. He said he supported Israel’s right to defend itself but condemned what he described as an “all-out war” on Palestinians in Gaza, leading to 42,000 Palestinian deaths and severe damage to Gaza’s infrastructure, health care, and educational systems.

In a social media video posted the same day as the Madison rally, he attempted to reassure progressive voters about what a Harris policy approach would look like. 

Sanders told rally goers he would work with Harris to secure the release of the hostages, get more humanitarian aid into Gaza and commit to the rebuilding of the Gaza Strip for the Palestinian people.

“I promise you, after Kamala wins, we will together do everything that we can to change U.S. policy toward Netanyahu,” Sanders said.

He detailed his confidence that Harris would be much better for humanitarian priorities than Donald Trump.

Bringing his speech to an end in Madison he said: “We’ve got to bring our people together.”

Next up for the campaigns in Wisconsin, Vice President  Kamala Harris will hold a rally in Madison on Wednesday night while Donald Trump returns to the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, where he was officially nominated in July at the Republican National Convention, on Friday