The outspoken mayor of Puerto Rico’s capital city is giving President Donald Trump the lowest score possible for the federal response to Hurricane Maria.
Trump gave his administration the highest commendation for its storm recovery response on Thursday during a meeting with the U.S. territory’s governor, Ricardo Rossello.
‘I’d say it was a ten.’ he said, later claiming, ‘I think we did a fantastic job.’
This morning, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz panned the response on CNN, saying on New Day, ‘If it is a “ten” out of a scale of 100, of course.
‘It is still a failing grade,’ she added.
Cruz gave the administration a ‘one.’ She noted that many people are still without electricity – 78 percent, according to CNN – drinkable water and rooftops.
Carmen Yulin Cruz, the outspoken mayor of Puerto Rico’s capital city is giving President Donald Trump the lowest score possible for the federal response to Hurricane Maria
Trump gave his administration the highest commendation for its storm recovery response in Puerto Rico on Thursday during a meeting with the U.S. territory’s governor, Ricardo Rossello
In the long question and answer session with reporters before a private meeting with the Democrat, Trump doubled down on his controversial claim that federal emergency managers can’t be in the territory forever.
Asked by a reporter how he thought the administration was handling it, Trump replied, ‘I’d say it was a ten. I’d say it was probably the most difficult.’
‘I think it was worse than Katrina. It was – in many ways worse than anything people have ever seen.’
Trump also said that Congress and Puerto Rico will need to come up with a plan to address the substantial debt the island was in before it was wrecked by two catastrophic storms.
‘I will say that I have given my blessing to Congress and Congress is working with you and your representatives on coming up with a plan, and a payment plan, and how it’s all going to be funded. Because you are talking about some substantial numbers – and I guess you knew that,’ Trump stated.
An official death toll claims 48 people lost their lives in Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Those numbers have been questioned by storm watchers who say it’s probably higher than what was reported.
Rossello said Thursday in his meeting with Trump that 250,000 homes had been lost and more than 42 roads were completely destroyed. The energy grid is a mess, he said, and needs to be lifted back up – ‘something that needs to start happening now.’
‘This is not over. Not over by a long shot,’ Rossello stated.
He did, however, praise the Republican president and his administration for its hands-on approach to the crisis in a break with San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, also a Democrat.
‘You responded immediately, sir,’ Rossello said after Trump prodded him to agree that the administration was doing a great job.
Destroyed buildings are viewed from the air during recovery efforts four weeks after Hurricane Maria struck on October 18, 2017 in-flight over Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is suffering shortages of food and water in areas with only 19.10 percent of grid electricity restored
FEMA Administrator Brock Long jumped in to explain that his agency has been working disasters in 20 different states and has registered 4 million Americans for aid.
Long said that’s more registrations than the government logged during Hurricanes Katrina, Wilma and Sandy, combined. ‘It’s been an tremendous effort,’ he asserted.
Trump flew to Puerto Rico earlier this month to see the devastation firsthand. Both his trip and the administration’s response to the crisis have been met with criticism, especially from Cruz.
The president and the San Juan mayor have hurled insults at each other on national television and on Twitter.
Trump said Cruz had been ‘very, very nice at the beginning’ then ‘all of a sudden she went a little bit on the nasty side.’
‘And I guess she is running for office and it turns out I was right. Isn’t that a shock?’ he said during an interview with Fox News during his time on the disaster-stricken island.
Cruz fired back at him in a Univision interview where she wore a ‘nasty’ t-shirt.
‘What is really nasty is that anyone would turn their back on the Puerto Rican people,’ she added.
Anyone who would attack a person ‘claiming lack of drinking water, lack of medicine for the sick, and lack of food for the hungry… has problems too severe to be explained in an interview,’ she argued.
A few days prior the two had sparred over Trump’s assault on her as a poor leader. He had also suggested that Puerto Rican’s are lazy in the Twitter tirade.
‘Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help,’ Trump said. ‘They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 federal workers now on island doing a fantastic job.’
U.S. President Donald Trump, with Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello and First Lady Melania Trump, sits down to a briefing on hurricane damage, at Muniz Air National Guard Base in Carolina, Puerto Rico, October 3
Cruz said then that Trump ‘continues to tweet in his hate all over the place, and rather than offering comforting words. If you can’t be a president, be an executive. Make sure that all ducks are straight in a row and you’re getting things done.’
Trump most recently took arrows for his proclamation that the residents of Puerto Rico will ultimately be responsible for rebuilding their island.
‘We cannot keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever!’ the president tweeted.
This time Rossello responded and said, The U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico are requesting the support that any of our fellow citizens would receive across our Nation.’
Rossello and Trump have been collegial to each other throughout the storm recovery process, with Trump saying of Rosello in a tweet just before his day-long visit: ‘The Governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rossello, is a great guy and leader who is really working hard. Thank you Ricky!’
Trump said Thursday in his Oval Office meeting that he and Rossello ‘have gotten to know each other extremely well over the last couple of weeks.’
‘And I can tell you, you are a hard working governor. It’s a tough situation. So much has to be rebuilt, even from before,’ Trump said.
Trump said the federal government would be as helpful as it can but ‘at some point FEMA has to leave, first responders have to leave, and the people have to take over.
‘At a certain point, we have to leave the various locations that we’re in,’ he said. ‘You know, at some point, no matter where it is, whether it’s Texas or whether it’s Florida, it ends.’
Moments later, Trump said of Puerto Rico, ‘This instance, it’s a more difficult situation. But I think the governor understands that FEMA, the military, first responders cannot be there forever. And no matter where you go, they cannot be there forever.’
Rossello said, ‘That is the importance of the short-term and long-term packages that will be in Congress, right? We’re going to need some resources.’
‘You know, the President has been clear on stating that no U.S. citizen will be left behind. We will be working. And this is the way we work towards making a better America and a better Puerto Rico,’ Rossello stated.