President Donald Trump found some support from Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera for his comments on the death toll from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
The president tweeted a quote from Rivera and tagged his account after days of attacks following his accusation that Democrats inflated the death count in Puerto Rico from last year’s hurricanes to make him “look as bad as possible.”
“They say all these people died in the storm in Puerto Rico, yet 70% of the power was out before the storm. So when did people start dying? At what point do you recognize that what they are doing is a political agenda couched in the nice language of journalism?” @GeraldoRivera
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2018
“’They say all these people died in the storm in Puerto Rico, yet 70% of the power was out before the storm,” Trump tweeted Friday.
The president came under fire after questioning the updated death toll based on a study from George Washington University.
3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. When I left the Island, AFTER the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths. As time went by it did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3000…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 13, 2018
…..This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when I was successfully raising Billions of Dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico. If a person died for any reason, like old age, just add them onto the list. Bad politics. I love Puerto Rico!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 13, 2018
Rivera noted earlier that the unfair attacks on the president made him angry.
pisses me off watching commentators blaming @POTUS for 3000 hurricane related deaths in #PuertoRico these folks Never wrote or reported anything about PR. There is total ignorance or avoidance of fact power grid was in chaos Power Authority bankrupt & corrupt before #Maria hit.
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) September 11, 2018
Responding to Trump’s tweet on Friday, Rivera unloaded in a series of tweets himself, noting that Puerto Rico’s infrastructure has been a problem long before Trump took office and blasting the “corrupt criminaly inept bankrupt power authority.”
Care deeply for my beloved #PuertoRico dad Cruz Rivera 1 of 17 kids & worked sugar cane plantation. Many relatives still live on island. Their travails during Hurricanes Irma & Maria-trees thru roofs-power lost-inflicted mainly by corrupt criminaly inept bankrupt power authority
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) September 14, 2018
#PuertoRicans are American citizens by birth-yet those outside tourist areas & select suburbs live in an essentially 3rd World country w fragile to non existent infrastructure Colony must become a state, so islanders have rights guaranteed by their Constitution-our constitution
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) September 14, 2018
BTW on my paternal grandma’s side, we trace our heritage to now extinct Taino Indians-island’s original residents-off-shoot of Carib Tribe. I’m 10% aboriginal-Puerto Rico is in my blood. It needs more than political sniping-It needs finally to be not possessed but accepted by USA
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) September 14, 2018
Rivera called out the “incompetent crooks” at the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), contrasting the response to how quickly power was being restored in the wake of Hurricane Florence in North Carolina.
@ShepNewsTeam just interviewed sincerely engaged leader of #DukeEnergy. His teams have already restored power for many of 400,000+ who have lost power. Contrast to #PREPA in #PuertoRico where incompetent crooks who drove utility into bankruptcy then ran for cover when grid failed
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) September 14, 2018
He also tapped Anderson Cooper and other so-called journalists for never mentioning the “criminal negligence” by PREPA because they are so busy blaming Trump.
pal @AC360 @JakeTapper & @ChrisBHaynes never mention criminal negligence of #PREPA because it doesn’t fit the @realDonaldTrump has blood on his hands narrative.
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) September 14, 2018
Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs came to the defense of the president this week as well, unloading in a fiery monologue on those “who’ve blindly accepted an amazing tortured inflation of the death toll.”
“Only President Trump has had the guts to call out the Dems and national left wing media types, who’ve blindly accepted an amazing tortured inflation of the death toll, almost 50 times higher than the original count, and with scant evidence to support any of it,” Dobbs said on Fox Business Network’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight.”
Rivera’s condemnation of the PREPA and the corruption in Puerto Rico is not new as he has been backing Trump in this area since the devastating hurricane hit the island last year.
Don’t blame @realDonaldTrump Blame 2 historic storms back to back & blame #PREPA the bankrupt criminally incompetent ElectricPowerAuthority
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) September 29, 2017
#FBI must probe-get indictments-arrest & prosecute thieves who bled #PREPA dry. They condemned Island to darkness & disruption after storm
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) October 17, 2017
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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