White House spokesman Hogan Gidley referred Tuesday to Puerto Rico as “that country” twice when defending President Trump’s attack on the U.S. territory’s leaders for being “grossly incompetent.”
“With all we’ve done in that country, they’ve had a systematic mismanagement of the goods and services we’ve sent to them,” said Gidley on an appearance on MSNBC.
“You’ve seen food just rotting in the ports. Their governor has done a horrible job. He’s trying to make political hay in a political year, and he’s trying to find someone to take the blame off of his for not having a grid and not having a good system in that country at all,” he added.
Gidley appeared on TV to defend Trump after the president accused Puerto Rico’s politicians on Twitter of mismanaging federal aid in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
“Puerto Rico got 91 Billion Dollars for the hurricane, more money than has ever been gotten for a hurricane before, & all their local politicians do is complain & ask for more money. The pols are grossly incompetent, spend the money foolishly or corruptly, & only take from USA,” said Trump in one tweet.
[Read more: Trump says he has ‘taken better care of Puerto Rico than any man ever’]
Puerto Rico got 91 Billion Dollars for the hurricane, more money than has ever been gotten for a hurricane before, & all their local politicians do is complain & ask for more money. The pols are grossly incompetent, spend the money foolishly or corruptly, & only take from USA….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2019
Gidley later said referring to Puerto Rico as “that country” was “a slip of the tongue.”
