President Trump visited Puerto Rico on Tuesday and in public address lauded officials and rescue personnel who have been responding to the crisis caused by Hurricane Maria. The list of individuals mentioned by Trump was long but did not include the mayor of San Juan.
President Trump visited Puerto Rico on Tuesday and in public address lauded officials and rescue personnel who have been responding to the crisis caused by Hurricane Maria.
The massive storm, which hit on September 20, left those on the island without power and, in many cases, access to food, clean water, and medical assistance, reports CNN.
The list of individuals mentioned by Trump was long but did not include Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan.
Though he did shake her hand upon meeting her, Trump had, in recent days, made her the focus of a number of Twitter attacks, notes ABC News.
Over the weekend he questioned Cruz's leadership ability and apparently referred to her and other local officials critical of the delayed U.S. response as, “politically motivated ingrates." The San Juan mayor had, on Friday, made a public plea for immediate aid and assistance, saying, in part, “If anybody out there is listening to us, we are dying and you are killing us with the inefficiency and the bureaucracy."
She also challenged acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke’s assertion that Puerto Rico was, due to federal response, “a good news story.”
Notably, Duke was among those praised by Trump.
The president also spoke highly of FEMA Chief Brock Long and Ricardo Rosselló, Puerto Rico’s governor.