Democratic lawmakers lined up on Twitter Saturday to lambaste President Donald Trump for attacking San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz for having "poor leadership" skills and Puerto Rico for wanting "everything done for them" while he is spending the weekend at his Bedminster, N.J. golf resort.
Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy led the charge, saying Trump was sitting in his "opulent" golf resort while attacking first responders.
On Friday, Murphy and fellow Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal criticized Trump for his response to the Puerto Rican disaster, compared to the response to Hurricanes Harvey in Texas and Irma in Florida, reports the Hartford Courant.
“There is a double standard for disaster relief and everyone in the world is watching right now,” Murphy said at a press conference with Blumenthal Friday afternoon. “Why do we spend $500 billion on the U.S. military every year if they aren’t ready and prepared to respond to an epic humanitarian disaster on U.S. soil?”
On Saturday, several other Democratic lawmakers joined Murphy on Twitter to slam Trump's response:
From Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass.:
Democratic Rep. Don Beyer issued a series of tweets, also complaining that Trump is golfing while American citizens in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, suffer:
Meanwhile, Reps. Kathy Castor, D-Florida and Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-New Jersey, urged compassion.
Coleman complained of Trump's "cold" heart after Cruz asked for his help:
Trump's Saturday attack appeared to be triggered after Cruz on Friday slammed the federal government's response to the island's severe emergency.
"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.
Trump was slated to hold a series of phone calls Saturday from his golf club in New Jersey to discuss relief efforts with Federal Emergency Management Agency 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, reports The Hill.
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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