Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said President Trump’s statements casting doubt on the death toll in Puerto Rico due to Hurricane Maria last year were “disheartening.”
“Incredibly disheartening comments from our President,” Bush tweeted Thursday evening in response to a USA Today article about the episode.
[Related: Twitter rips Trump for claiming Puerto Rico death toll was inflated, devised by Democrats]
Incredibly disheartening comments from our President https://t.co/0okJev2k2W
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) September 13, 2018
Earlier Thursday, Trump disputed that 3,000 people were killed in Hurricane Maria, and said that it was an effort from Democrats to make him “look as bad as possible.” The tweet came after Trump faced widespread backlash for praising his administration’s response to the catastrophe, claiming it was an “incredible, unsung success.”
“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,” Trump tweeted. “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. Bad politics. I love Puerto Rico!”
Puerto Rico’s government updated the death toll from Hurricane Maria late last month, and now believe that 2,975 people died because of the hurricane and its aftermath.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said after Trump’s tweet that he had “no reason to dispute” the official numbers, and others lambasted the president for the comments.
