White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refuted criticisms against President Donald Trump and his response to the damage left by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, The Hill reported Saturday.
Sanders particularly took issue with a report in The Washington Post on Friday that claimed recovery efforts in Puerto Rico were hampered because the Trump administration "went dark" last weekend when the president left for his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J.
"WP story on PR is false. @POTUS gave military & first responders 100% support & has been updated daily on efforts by Gen Kelly and @fema," Sanders tweeted Saturday.
The Post story, however, claimed, "Neither Trump nor any of his senior White House aides said a word publicly about the unfolding crisis… Administration officials would not say whether the president spoke with any other top officials involved in the storm response while in Bedminster, N.J."
San Juan's Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz on Friday blasted the lack of assistance from the U.S., saying, "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."
In turn, Trump called Cruz's leadership "poor" and suggested she was being influenced by Democrats over U.S. recovery efforts.
"The mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump," Trump tweeted. "Such poor leadership ability by the mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help."
He also maintained Puerto Ricans wanted "everything to be done for them" and said there were "10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job."
Trump is again at his Bedminster golf club this weekend and plans to hold phone calls with FEMA director Brock Long, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, Puerto Rico resident commissioner Jenniffer González-Colón and the governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Kenneth Mapp, according to the White House.
Trump also tweeted on Saturday that he plans to visit Puerto Rico on Tuesday with first lady Melania.
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