Apparently there’s a concerted effort on the Left to try and turn the hurricane ravaged Puerto Rico into Trump’s Katrina. But according to Charles Cooke over at National Review, there’s absolutely no merit to the left’s claims:
We are seeing the beginning of a concerted attempt to turn the crisis in Puerto Rico into “Trump’s Katrina.” And, as T. Becket Adams points out, those responsible aren’t even being subtle about it. All of a sudden, we have new talking points: Trump is ignoring Puerto Rico! Trump hates brown people! Trump doesn’t even know that Puerto Ricans are Americans!
This is unfair. Indeed, when pushed, the critique seems more to be that Trump isn’t tweeting about Puerto Rico (and then, when he does tweet, that he shouldn’t be tweeting, or that he should tweet differently, or that the timing of his tweets was wrong, or that he shouldn’t push back on Twitter against the idea that he doesn’t care about the island). But tweeting does not a rescue operation make, and until about five minutes ago, everyone in America seemed to know that.
Indeed, Cooke goes on to point out what the governor of Puerto Rico said just last night:
JOHN YANG: Governor, are you getting all the aid you need or getting it fast enough from the states?
GOV. RICARDO ROSSELLO: First of all, we are very grateful for the administration. They have responded quickly.
The president has been very attentive to the situation, personally calling me several times. FEMA and the FEMA director have been here in Puerto Rico twice. As a matter of fact, they were here with us today, making sure that all the resources in FEMA were working in conjunction with the central government. We have been working together.
We have been getting results. The magnitude of this catastrophe is enormous. This is going to take a lot of help, a lot of collaboration. So, my call is to congressmen and congresswomen to take action quickly and conclusively with an aid package for Puerto Rico.
And the mayor of San Juan:
This morning, the mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulín Cruz, echoed Rossello’s sentiments. As NBC reports, Cruz called into CNN to share “harrowing details of rescue efforts in her city,” and to “[praise] the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s ‘great job’ and ‘logistics help.’”
So as you can see, the White House is apparently responding quite well to the island.
I’d also like to point something else out. The White House has had to deal with not just one or two hurricanes, but three of them: Harvey, Irma, and now Maria. And all in one month.
As Cooke points out the White House is sure to make mistakes in their responses to these disasters as that is the nature of government. But when they do, I’d say we shouldn’t just freak out, but consider the fact that their hands are a little full right now.
Here’s Trump earlier today addressing a question about this:
President Trump: "We are getting tremendous reviews" on how we're handling hurricane relief https://t.co/iR4d8ahxdm
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) September 26, 2017