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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Puerto Rico: So Close to the Mainland, So Far From the GOP

Puerto Rico: So Close to the Mainland, So Far From the GOP

by Anne Laurie|  April 4, 201912:36 am| 23 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Dolt 45, Domestic Politics, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?

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Then join our effort to get them the funding they need and deserve, and quit following the lead of an administration that considers Puerto Rico another country.

This isn’t a game.

These are Americans who need our help! https://t.co/RfgLLSrR59

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 3, 2019

Puerto Rico did NOT get 91 billion dollars in hurricane relief. Puerto Rico suffered 91b in damages, appx 3,000 people died, but received only 1b in relief. Lies from the President about American lives. https://t.co/gJ8CVsFm4C

— Sunny Hostin (@sunny) April 2, 2019

White House spox Hogan Gidley refers to Puerto Rico as "that country" on @HallieJackson's show. "With all we've done in that country, they have systematic mismanagement of the goods and services we've sent to them."
Gidley says later that it was "a slip of the tongue."

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) April 2, 2019

MSNBC's @HallieJackson to @HoganGidley45: "Puerto Rico is part of the United States. People who live in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens. You're rolling your eyes and I don't know why you're rolling your eyes." pic.twitter.com/Ix38Z18QJp

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) April 2, 2019



Eric Lutz, at Vanity Fair, “Trump Is Still Whining About Having to Help Puerto Rico”:

President Donald Trump is once again ranting about Puerto Rico, complaining about the amount of aid money the U.S. territory has received in the wake of Hurricane Maria, and lashing out at its leaders who “only take from USA.” The president’s string of tweets, which began late Monday and picked up again Tuesday morning, came after the Senate rejected a $13.5 billion disaster-relief bill that included just $600 million to the struggling island’s food-stamp program. “The Democrats today killed a Bill that would have provided great relief to Farmers and yet more money to Puerto Rico despite the fact that Puerto Rico has already been scheduled to receive more hurricane relief funding than any ‘place’ in history,” Trump wrote. “Puerto Rico got far more money than Texas & Florida combined, yet their government can’t do anything right,” he added. “The place is a mess—nothing works.”…

Trump, who claimed back in September that the death toll from the storm was artificially inflated by his political opponents to “make [him] look as bad as possible,” has continued to bash the island whenever possible, often using statistics of dubious origin. He has claimed multiple times that the island received “91 Billion Dollars for the hurricane, more money than has ever been gotten for a hurricane before.” That’s not exactly true. Per The Washington Post, $91 billion is actually a high estimate of what the federal government could spend over the life of the disaster. As of Tuesday, per the Post, it had actually spent about $11 billion…

I’ll believe that Trump is growing into the presidency when his staff stops talking about him like a toddler. https://t.co/Q2AmoJXtuE pic.twitter.com/pI6K0baVOZ

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) April 3, 2019

Folks are missing a key thing that makes Trump's Puerto Rico tweets so awful.

Trump isn't merely lying about how much PR has gotten.

He's also pitting Midwest victims *against* PR victims, by falsely saying more aid to latter would take aid from former:https://t.co/YYcPL0qnXD

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) April 2, 2019

…[T]he core dispute is not over whether Midwestern disaster relief should be funded, or by how much. It’s over whether more money should be added to help Puerto Rico. And even if more were added for Puerto Rico, as Democrats want, it would not come out of funding for Midwestern relief.

And so, the underlying premise of the Republican attack is that it should be a political liability for Democrats if they want to fully fund disaster relief for everybody.

In the real world, of course, if the true nature of this dispute were understood, it probably wouldn’t be a political problem for Democrats. That’s why they are embracing their demand for funding relief for all who are afflicted. As Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer put it, “we help our fellow Americans when there’s a disaster, wherever the disaster strikes. We do not abandon them. Period.”…

The underlying premise of this story is that the voters Trump plainly hopes to arouse with it will be inclined to believe those lies….

Remember the ‘basket of deplorables’?…

Flashback to when ?@HillaryClinton? told me Trump probably doesn’t know Puerto Ricans are Americans. pic.twitter.com/YAkYsF9rnF

— Zerlina Maxwell (@ZerlinaMaxwell) April 2, 2019

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Reader Interactions

23Comments

  1. 1.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    April 4, 2019 at 12:57 am

    When Trump saw that Maria hit Puerto Rico, all he saw was RICO.

  2. 2.

    Jay

    April 4, 2019 at 1:18 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Sorry Bill, jokes about this fall flat for me.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/vicenews/status/1111364662904451073

  3. 3.

    Amir Khalid

    April 4, 2019 at 1:24 am

    In fairness to Trump, as it were, he’s not really any kinder to people he knows are Americans. Unless they’re very rich.

  4. 4.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    April 4, 2019 at 1:27 am

    @Jay: I wasn’t joking.

  5. 5.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    April 4, 2019 at 1:30 am

    If Puerto Rico is a “negative business transaction”, what about South Carolina, North Dakota, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida*?

    *Top 5 in expenditures-taxes.

  6. 6.

    West of the Rockies

    April 4, 2019 at 1:31 am

    Who the hell is Hogan Gidley? Looks like a spoiled little prick.

  7. 7.

    smike

    April 4, 2019 at 1:31 am

    @Jay:
    I have a feeling Bill wasn’t joking.

    ETA clarity.

  8. 8.

    Jay

    April 4, 2019 at 1:40 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    @smike:

    As a NYC convicted racist landlord, Insane Clown POSus is well aware who Puerto Ricans are, where Puerto Rico is, and that it’s a US Dependency.

    It’s just cruel revenge fot getting his ass sued in NYC by tenants and losing,

    With a triple dose of his Naziism.

  9. 9.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    April 4, 2019 at 1:46 am

    @Jay:

    As a NYC convicted racist landlord, Insane Clown POSus is well aware who Puerto Ricans are,

    True, and hates them.

    where Puerto Rico is,

    I have my doubts.

    and that it’s a US Dependency.

    No, he doesn’t know that.

  10. 10.

    Jay

    April 4, 2019 at 1:53 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Puerto Rico 86’d a Trump Development in the ‘90’s.

    Playing ignorant is one of the tactics Trump uses to get his opponents to chase after the narrative rather than stay focused.

    Now, I’m not saying Trump is smart, but he does have a basic grasp of a few facts, he just pretends he doesn’t to f€ck with people and waste their time.

  11. 11.

    Death Panel Truck

    April 4, 2019 at 1:58 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    No, he doesn’t know that

    I’m sure he’s been told; he just refuses to believe it.

  12. 12.

    Jay

    April 4, 2019 at 2:05 am

    @Death Panel Truck:

    Given his Puerto Rico Development going down in flames in the ‘90’s,

    Yeah, no.

    https://www.npr.org/2017/10/05/555457046/trumps-puerto-rico-golf-venture-not-such-a-great-deal

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2017/03/20/puerto-rico-trump-bankruptcy-golf-course/amp/

  13. 13.

    wenchacha

    April 4, 2019 at 2:08 am

    One of my cousins told me after the hurricane that “we can’t just drive trucks over there, it will take time,” when I expressed disgust with how 45 was dealing with the aftermath. She is now muted on facebook. She was sure that I just did not understand. And I guess she was right about that.

  14. 14.

    Jay

    April 4, 2019 at 2:20 am

    @wenchacha:

    Send her the Vice video I linked up top.

  15. 15.

    NotMax

    April 4, 2019 at 2:24 am

    “They should have listed all those paper towels I personally touched on ebay. Would have raked in more than enough to Fix The Place Up. I literally threw opportunity into their arms and they weren’t smart enough to take advantage of it.”

    (snark-o-meter needle pinned)

  16. 16.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    April 4, 2019 at 3:25 am

    Would it be appropriate to start referring to the rightful winner of the 2016 election as Cassandra? She predicted essentially all of this, and she was treated as a raving loon by our sexually harassing media idiots. It’s eerie. Not to mention depressing.

  17. 17.

    Mary G

    April 4, 2019 at 3:28 am

    He’s playing the rotten landlord game. If he can run off or kill the current residents, buy up all the houses at 10 cents on the dollar to bulldoze down, put up condos, houses, and golf courses with his name all over them, he will make out like a bandit.

  18. 18.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    April 4, 2019 at 3:35 am

    @(((CassandraLeo))): Ugh. I probably shouldn’t have actually watched the clip. Now I’m tearing up over what we almost had, but now feels lost forever. Memo to self: don’t watch clips of Hillary Clinton late at night unless you want to depress yourself.

  19. 19.

    rikyrah

    April 4, 2019 at 3:42 am

    They want to kill these American Citizens ???

  20. 20.

    Jay

    April 4, 2019 at 4:15 am

    @(((CassandraLeo))):

    I save them for the AM, so I can be mean, short and brutal all day.

    #Fuck you feelings, #All out of fucks to give.

  21. 21.

    jeffreyw

    April 4, 2019 at 9:55 am

    @West of the Rockies:

    Who the hell is Hogan Gidley? Looks like a spoiled little prick.

    I believe he was the guy on Gilligan’s Island that the Skipper killed and ate.

  22. 22.

    moonbat

    April 4, 2019 at 10:50 am

    @West of the Rockies: Sounds like one of those awkward character names Ayn Rand was a pro at dreaming up.

  23. 23.

    JGabriel

    April 4, 2019 at 6:01 pm

    @West of the Rockies:

    Who the hell is Hogan Gidley? Looks like a spoiled little prick.

    That’s uncanny. It’s like you already know him.

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