Instead of walking back Donald Trump‘s disgusting comments on Thursday that called the Puerto Rico casualty count fake news, the White House doubled down.
In a baffling statement to CNN, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said Trump‘s lie from earlier in the day was a response to the “liberal media and the San Juan Mayor who sadly have tried to exploit the devastation by pushing out a constant stream of misinformation and false accusations.”
The full statement via CNN‘s Kaitlan Collins:
The White House says Trump was “responding to the liberal media and San Juan Mayor who sadly, have tried to exploit the devastation by pushing out a constant stream of misinformation and false accusations” when said, with no evidence, that 3,000 people didn’t die in Puerto Rico. pic.twitter.com/sR882Zyjil
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— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) September 13, 2018
The claim by the White House that the media is guilty of pushing misinformation comes hours after the president himself did just that by claiming that 3,000 people didn’t actually die in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and that it’s all just a liberal hoax.
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
Trump’s Puerto Rico lie could be his most disgusting yet
Trump’s Puerto Rico lie was one of his most disgusting yet. Claiming that 3,000 Puerto Rico victims don’t exist and it’s simply a fake news story pushed by Democrats goes well beyond his base level of stupidity. It’s disgusting.
This disturbing lie comes at a time when the Atlantic coast is bracing for yet another powerful storm and Trump is removing money from the FEMA and the U.S. Coast Guard budget to fund his family separation operations.
With their statement on Thursday, the White House staff once again demonstrated that there is no low to which they won’t stoop in order to please their unstable boss.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
