WASHINGTON 鈥� Nearly a year after Hurricane Maria barreled across the Caribbean and devastated Puerto Rico, the island has become the focal point of a stormy political debate involving Congress and the White House over how the Trump Administration responded to the disaster.
President Trump鈥檚 tweet this week, asserting that Democrats highlighted the death toll of nearly 3,000 to make him look bad, stunned lawmakers 鈥� including Republicans.
3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. When I left the Island, AFTER the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths. As time went by it did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000…
鈥� Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
…..This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when I was successfully raising Billions of Dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico. If a person died for any reason, like old age, just add them onto the list. Bad politics. I love Puerto Rico!
鈥� Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Friday said she didn鈥檛 want to dwell on the president鈥檚 comments, but felt compelled to respond on behalf of hurricane victims.
鈥淭he attitude from the administration and the Republican Congress is unacceptable,鈥� she said at a U.S. Capitol news conference, flanked by other Democrats. 鈥淲e have a moral obligation to do better, not only to finish the job in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, but to prevent the same type of inadequate response from ever happening again.鈥�
One of those joining Pelosi was Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), the first Puerto Rican woman to be elected to Congress. She noted the hurricane that struck Puerto Rico led to massive power outages and 鈥渢he longest blackout in American history.鈥� She also called the president鈥檚 tweets 鈥渟hameful.鈥�
鈥淎s president of the United States your very first responsibility is to protect the lives of American citizens after disasters,鈥� she said. 鈥淚nstead, your administration created a humanitarian crisis through inadequate preparation and an incompetent response.鈥�
The Democratic lawmakers called on the administration to support more funding for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as back a formal review into what went wrong.
President Trump has aggressively defended the administration鈥檚 response to last year鈥檚 hurricanes and called the efforts to help the people of Puerto Rico an 鈥渦nsung success.鈥�
While some Republican lawmakers have distanced themselves from the president鈥檚 comments on Puerto Rico and the death toll, others say they understand his frustration with lingering criticism.
鈥淭he idea that a year after the fact we鈥檙e complaining 鈥� look, we鈥檝e gone back in and done a really pretty amazing job of trying to rebuild,鈥� said Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), noting the island鈥檚 infrastructure was in poor shape before the hurricane. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 how the relief effort could have done any better than it did, quite frankly.鈥�
A month after the hurricanes, in October of last year, Congress approved at $36.5 billion disaster relief package, which included money for Puerto Rico.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) says in Puerto Rico, restoring power and helping with property repairs and a massive cleanup.
