As a result of hurricane «Maria» that struck Puerto Rico in September 2017, killed 2 975. These are the findings of an independent study that by order of the authorities of the island was conducted by George Washington University (GWU). Donald trump called the information false and accused the Democrats of manipulating the numbers.
Today, September 13, the President said that his opponents made up those numbers to make it look «as bad as possible», while he «attracted billions of dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico.»
«During the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico, killed 3 thousand people. When I left the island… was there from 6 to 18 deaths, — wrote the head of the White house on Twitter. — Over time, this [number] was not significantly increased. And now after so long they began to talk about such big numbers, such as 3 thousands.»
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
The President also added that this number includes those who died of old age or for other reasons not related to the disaster.
«People in Puerto Rico do not deserve to have their pain questioned,» — said the Governor of Puerto Rico, responding to trump’s tweets during the live broadcast to Facebook. According to Ricardo Rossello, GWU conducted a study «to minimise uncertainty on the number of victims».
Hurricane Maria death tolls:
▪ This Puerto Rico government: 2,975
(based on death certificates and mortality data)
▪ This Harvard University: 4,645
(est. based on Puerto Rico household sampling data)
▪ This President Trump: 6 to 18
(based on no evidence given) pic.twitter.com/iH7EMJuKCj
— AJ+ (@ajplus) September 13, 2018
In early August, the island authorities have informed the U.S. Congress that the victims of hurricane «Maria» was 22 times more than said official sources. GWU submitted a full report on the number of victims have been 2 975.
Member of the U.S. house of representatives from Florida Republican Ileana ROS-Lehtinen said that it shook trump’s words.
«How can you be so self-centered and try so hard to distort the truth? Unthinkable!» said ROS-Lehtinen.
