Florida Gov. Rick Scott broke with President Trump Thursday after the president publicly cast doubt on the number of deaths caused by two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico last year.
“I disagree with @POTUS– an independent study said thousands were lost and Gov. Rosselló agreed.” Scott said in a tweet. “I’ve been to Puerto Rico 7 times & saw devastation firsthand.”
“The loss of any life is tragic; the extent of lives lost as a result of Maria is heart wrenching,” Scott continued. I’ll continue to help PR.”
[Related: Twitter rips Trump for claiming Puerto Rico death toll was inflated, devised by Democrats]
Scott, the Republican nominee for Senate against Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., is a top ally of the president and has been actively involved in the aftermath from the Hurricane, which hit last September.
Trump charged in a series of tweets this morning that the report on the 3,000 deaths was put together “by the Democrats in order to make me look bad.”
“3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico,” Trump said. “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.”
“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,” Trump said. “Bad politics. I love Puerto Rico!”
The comments came in the run up to Hurricane Florence, which is expected to hit the Carolinas early Friday morning.
