Today brought the final nail in the coffin of the phony story that the federal government wasn't providing aid to Puerto Rico. The chief purveyor of that false story has been the mayor of San Juan who falsely claimed that people were dying due to the uncaring federal government. It then became clear that there was an enormous amount of aid sitting in San Juan which had not been distributed because the local government had not gotten truck drivers and trucks to do that job. That was bad enough, but then it got worse. The mayor first criticized FEMA and DHS and president Trump for a failed federal effort. These agencies and the president did not just sit and take the attack; instead they pushed back and pointed out all that had been done. The consistent response had been that the local and island officials needed to coordinate with the feds in order to get the aid to the people across Puerto Rico. The governor and his people had done this. The mayors of other cities had done this. The mayor of San Juan, however, had been too busy giving TV interviews to take the time to coordinate with the feds.
When the mayor was questioned about this, she started to back off her story. She stopped criticizing FEMA and HHS and started praising them for their efforts instead. She kept her criticism of president Trump nevertheless. Now, however, the mayor has confirmed that since the storm passed the island, she has not once bothered to go to the regional command center (like everyone else) to coordinate the city efforts with those of the island and the federal government.
It's sad that the mayor of San Juan thought that it was appropriate to use this disaster to make political points based upon phony stories. The citizens of that city depend on her to actually do her job. I wonder how much suffering could have been alleviated had the mayor bothered to do her job.
When the mayor was questioned about this, she started to back off her story. She stopped criticizing FEMA and HHS and started praising them for their efforts instead. She kept her criticism of president Trump nevertheless. Now, however, the mayor has confirmed that since the storm passed the island, she has not once bothered to go to the regional command center (like everyone else) to coordinate the city efforts with those of the island and the federal government.
It's sad that the mayor of San Juan thought that it was appropriate to use this disaster to make political points based upon phony stories. The citizens of that city depend on her to actually do her job. I wonder how much suffering could have been alleviated had the mayor bothered to do her job.
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