Administration Ignored What They Knew Would Be a Disaster
President Trump would like Americans to know the reason his administration’s terrible response to the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico, caused by Hurricane Maria, after being impacted by Hurricane Irma, has been so bad.
Despite reports that the White House until at least Monday had no plan to intervene in assistance efforts, President Trump and White House officials have spent the entire week talking about what a great job his team, including FEMA, is doing for the people of Puerto Rico.
That’s false, as the mayor of San Juan has repeatedly insisted.
On Friday, Trump defended his efforts by offering as an excuse the fact that Puerto Rico “is an island, surrounded by water, big water, ocean water.”
That literally is his reason for not having sent in the military until now, for not having waived the law prohibiting non-U.S. vessels from delivering important supplies to the island, for not having ensured there were logistics plans in place.
“Water, big water.”
Trump went on to offer up that his administration is “closely coordinated with the territorial and local governments, which are totally and unfortunately unable to handle this catastrophic crisis on their own. Just totally unable to.
Trump also blamed “the tremendous amount of existing debt” Puerto Rico is facing as a good reason to not provide sufficient financial assistance.
Some responses via Twitter:
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