Puerto Rico to Trump: 'We Are American Citizens'
The island territorys top representative in Washington says the presidents efforts to blame Puerto Rico for its desperate hurricane recovery are 'shocking.'
By EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE October 17, 2017
Just before the interview starts, Jenniffer Gonzalez tries four different numbers shes been trying to reach back home in Puerto Rico. She gets the same error message for all of them. Cant connect.
One call that does come through is from the White House, which is trying to explain away the presidents tweets warning that the federal response wouldnt go on forever. Her reaction was off the record.
Gonzalez, Puerto Ricos non-voting representative in Congress, is using what limited power she has to wheedle, cajole and beg agencies to help with an island territory she says has been put back a centurysome 86 percent of Puerto Ricans are still without electricity, three weeks after the hurricane knocked out the islands power grid, and 29 percent dont even have potable water.
Shes calling in favors and firing off text messages to get patients dialysis or chemotherapy, with no time to think about the damage to her own house. Gonzalez happened to be home during the storm, and she was literally holding the door closed. Now in Washington to lobby for a more vigorous relief effort, shes anxious about all the damage that continues to mount from rain that keeps coming down on homes that dont have roofs anymore.
Your life, Gonzalez told me with tears in her eyes during an interview for POLITICOs Off Message podcast, is like stopping without knowing what is going to happen next.
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http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/17/off-message-puerto-rico-trump-maria-215718