San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz hit back at President Donald Trump Saturday after he slammed her on Twitter as being "nasty" with her pleas for help for the island territory as it rebuilds following a direct hit from Hurricane Maria earlier this month.
“The goal is one: saving lives," Cruz tweeted "This is the time to show our ‘true colors’. We cannot be distracted by anything else."
Her lone tweet followed a series of Tweets by Trump about an hour earlier, in which he accused the island territory of "wanting everything to be done for them" and Cruz herself of exhibiting "poor leadership" and being "nasty" because she was told to be that way by Democrats.
Cruz, a member of the island's Popular Democratic Party, on Friday slammed Homeland Security Elaine Duke's comments that the administration's response to Puerto Rico, which was hit hard by Hurricane Irma and then devastated in a head-on hit by Hurricane Maria, as being a "good news story."
"Damn it, this is not a good news story," Cruz told CNN "New Day" co-anchor Alisyn Camerota, after she was played a recording of comments Duke had made on Thursday. "This is a people are dying story. This is a life-or-death story."
Later on Friday, the mayor held a press conference to criticize the Trump administration's efforts, reports The Hill.
"I will do what I never thought I was going to do. I am begging, begging anyone who can hear us to save us from dying. If anybody out there is listening to us, we are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency," she said.
She spoke with CNN's Anderson Cooper Friday night, while wearing a shirt saying "help us, we are dying."
Trump plans to visit Puerto Rico on Tuesday with wife Melania.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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