Washington (CNN) - President
Donald Trump launched an attack on San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz on
Saturday for criticizing the White House's hurricane relief efforts in
Puerto Rico, accusing her of "poor leadership" and suggesting that the
island's residents are not doing enough to help themselves.
"The
Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has
now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump," the
President tweeted from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he
is spending the weekend. "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. They want everything to be done for them when it should
be a community effort."
The spectacle of
Trump's comments slamming Cruz and others on their own response efforts
as Puerto Rico struggles to deal with disaster that left millions
without power and with limited access to water -- and as Trump comes
under fire for what some have called a slow federal reaction -- sparked a
firestorm of reaction online, including from the creator of the
Broadway musical "Hamilton," Lin-Manuel Miranda, who said that Trump was
going "straight to hell."
"You're
going straight to hell, @realDonald Trump. No long lines for you,"
tweeted Miranda, who is of Puerto Rican descent. "Someone will say,
'Right this way, sir.' They'll clear a path."
Later Saturday, Vice President Mike Pence defended the President's remarks in an interview with Orlando television station WKMG.
"Well,
it is frustrating, I expect, to millions of Americans to hear rhetoric
coming out from some in Puerto Rico, particularly the mayor of San Juan,
instead of focusing on results," Pence said.
Pence
said he learned that "while our joint field operation at the convention
center in San Juan has more than 1,000 personnel working out in a
football field environment, the mayor of San Juan has only visited our
joint field operation once." He added that he would encourage her to
come alongside Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló and other officials
"who are focusing on continuing to make the steady progress that we are
making in Puerto Rico."
In the
series of early-morning tweets, Trump also lauded the federal
government's response on the island, which is still grappling with the
devastating impact of Hurricane Maria. The President said that the
10,000 federal workers there are doing a "fantastic job."
"The
military and first responders, despite no electric, roads, phones etc.,
have done an amazing job," he wrote. "Puerto Rico was totally
destroyed."
Trump's early praise of
relief efforts, however, does not appear to match the reality on the
ground. Puerto Rico, which is home to 3.4 million people, is facing a
humanitarian crisis, and many of its people remain without power and
water. Sixteen people have died, according to government officials, but
that number could well rise with the full range of devastation not yet
known.
In an interview with MSNBC,
Cruz said she wasn't making "nasty comments" about Trump in remarks
earlier this week criticizing the administration's statements lauding
the response, adding that her only goal was to save lives.
"I was asking for help," she said. "I wasn't saying anything nasty about the President."
Trump's
comments come ahead of a planned visit to Puerto Rico on Tuesday. The
President is scheduled to speak with Federal Emergency Management Agency
Administrator Brock Long, Rosselló and other Puerto Rican officials
later Saturday.
Rosselló said
Saturday morning that his previous conversations with Trump didn't
square up with the President's tweets and that Trump had "reiterated his
commitment with this effort."
"I
do reiterate that the only way for this to work is for us to have
collaboration," Rosselló said. "And let me stress this, I am committed
to collaborating with everybody. This is a point where we can't look at
small differences. We can't establish differences based on politics."
While
Trump and other administration officials have repeatedly lauded the
federal government's response to Maria, some have said that the
administration has moved more slowly than it did in responding to the
recent storms that battered Texas and Florida.
Other
critics have drawn comparisons to President George W. Bush's handling
of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, particularly given the race and class of
most victims in both disasters. Katrina, of course, became a political
disaster for the Bush presidency.
When
asked for his reaction to President Trump's tweets, Russel Honoré, the
retired general appointed by Bush to take over the federal response to
Katrina in 2005, said he had none.
"I have no reaction. The mayor's living on a cot, and I hope the President has a good day of golf," he told CNN.
Earlier
this week, Honoré told CNN that the President's response to Maria shows
that he doesn't care about the poor or people of color.
"The
President has shown again he don't give a damn about poor people,"
Honoré told CNN's Erin Burnett. "He doesn't give a damn about people of
color. And the SOB that rides around in Air Force One is denying
services needed by the people of Puerto Rico. I hate to say it that way
but there's no other way to say it."
In his interview Saturday with WKMG, Pence took issue with Honore's characterization.
"Well,
I would suggest, with great respect to that retired general and respect
for the work he's done in the past, that the Department of Defense --
16 different Navy ships in the region, the USS Comfort will be there in a
matter of days," Pence said. "I was able to inform Governor Rosselló
the USS Wasp will be arriving with 16 helicopters tomorrow. We have
literally 10,000 federal officials on the ground, 4,500 National Guard
have been there from early on, more are on the way."
A 'good news story'
Thursday,
acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke also stirred controversy
after she told reporters she was "very satisfied" with the federal
response since Maria made landfall, calling it a "good news story."
"I
know it is really a good news story in terms of our ability to reach
people and the limited number of deaths that have taken place in such a
devastating hurricane," Duke said.
That prompted a sharp retort from San Juan's mayor in a CNN interview.
"This
is, damn it, this is not a good news story," Mayor Cruz said. "This is a
'people are dying' story. This is a 'life-or-death' story. This is,
'there's a truckload of stuff that cannot be taken to people' story.
This is a story of a devastation that continues to worsen."
Dan
Scavino, the White House social media director, tweeted on Saturday
that Cruz "has been hating on @realDonaldTrump long before he was our
President."
In a separate tweet, Scavino described San Juan's mayor as "the perfect example of an opportunistic politician."
In his own Saturday morning
tweets, Trump also lashed out at the media for what he said was biased
coverage, saying that the "Fake News Networks are working overtime in
Puerto Rico."
"Fake News CNN and NBC are
going out of their way to disparage our great First Responders as a way
to 'get Trump,'" he tweeted. "Not fair to FR or effort!"
Democratic lawmakers react
Trump's
comments were criticized by a number of Democrats, who took issue with
the President's rhetoric in the middle of a domestic disaster.
Rep.
Al Green of Texas told CNN's Ana Cabrera on Saturday afternoon that he
thought Trump's comments showed he cared less about Puerto Rico because
it was unimportant to his reelection and added that he saw racial
undertones in the President's remarks.
"If
they were all Anglos, I don't believe the President would have the
attitude that he has, because you don't hear that kind of dog whistle,
of people not wanting to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, when
the people are Anglos," Green said. "That's something reserved for
people of color."
Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, meanwhile, called for an apology from the President.
"First
thing Trump should do on Tues when he visits #PuertoRico for the first
time since #HurricaneMaria devastated the island is apologize," Markey
tweeted.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York called Trump's remarks "offensive."
"When millions in Puerto Rico are in crisis, the president should be better than this," she tweeted.
Sen. Bob Menendez, a New
Jersey Democrat facing trial for federal bribery charges, tweeted that
Trump should be doing more to help the territory, suggesting his
response might be slower because Puerto Rico has no electoral votes.
"I
know Puerto Rico doesn't get Electoral College votes, Mr. President,
but there are real Americans there suffering. Time to do more," he
wrote.
In another tweet, Menendez declared the situation in Puerto Rico "worse" than Hurricane Katrina.
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth
Warren of Massachusetts said Puerto Rico was in "crisis" and Trump
should "stop playing politics with their lives."
"The
definition of 'poor leadership' is sitting at your golf club while
millions of US citizens beg for your help, @realDonaldTrump," she
tweeted.
Don Beyer, a Democratic
representative from Virginia, noted in a series of tweets that the
President had ignored the people of Puerto Rico for days, instead
"picking a fight with athletes while a humanitarian crisis grew in
Puerto Rico."
"You focused on aid
efforts in TX & FL but ignored Puerto Rico. Now you attack San
Juan's mayor for saying 'people are dying.' THEY ARE DYING," he wrote.
Amid
the criticisms, Trump took to Twitter later Saturday afternoon to
praise several Puerto Rican officials, including Rosselló; US Virgin
Islands Gov. Kenneth Mapp, an independent; and Republican Congresswoman
Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon.
"#FakeNews
critics are working overtime, but we're getting great marks from the
people that truly matter! #PRStrong" Trump wrote.
Trump continued to fault the news coverage of his administration's response in tweets Saturday night.
"Because
of #FakeNews my people are not getting the credit they deserve for
doing a great job," he wrote. "As seen here, they are ALL doing a GREAT
JOB!"
At a news conference
Saturday afternoon, Mapp said the vice president and his wife, Karen
Pence, would arrive in St. Croix on Friday to assess the hurricane
damage. He also said Trump did not rule out a visit to the territory
during a phone call Saturday, but the President was trying to visit both
Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands in one day, which posed logistical
challenges.
Administration update
FEMA
said in a news release Saturday that urban search-and-rescue teams,
working alongside local law enforcement, have scoured the island and
rescued 843 people. In addition, 11 highways have been cleared, 70% of
ports and 60% of gas stations are operating, and half of the grocery and
big box stores are open, the release said.
While
the release said power has been restored to 59 hospitals, FEMA official
Alejandro de la Campa told reporters only 5% of electricity had been
restored in the island as of Saturday.
The
president of the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, Elí Díaz
Atienza, gave a breakdown of the water service restoration effort to San
Juan radio station WIPR, saying water is running to about 55% of the
city.
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