Trump: Dems inflated Maria death toll
President says foes try to make him ‘look bad’
WASHINGTON — As Hurricane Florence bore down on the U.S. Thursday, President Donald Trump disputed the official death count from Hurricane Maria and accused Democrats of inflating the death toll in Puerto Rico from that storm to make him “look as bad as possible.”
Public health experts have estimated that nearly 3,000 perished because of the effects of Maria. But Trump tweeted that just six to 18 people had been reported dead when he visited two weeks after the storm and suggested that many had been added later “if a person died for any reason, like old age.”
He said of the Puerto Rico count, “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.”
Even some Republicans suggested the president had gone too far.
“Casualties don’t make a person look bad,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said, breaking with the president.
“So I have no reason to dispute those numbers.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who talks to Trump often, said, “I don’t think it’s bad to say we could have done better in Puerto Rico.” He also said he thought Trump “sees every attack on him as sort of undercutting his legitimacy.”
Especially upset were GOP politicians in Florida, a state with a substantial Puerto Rican population.
Gov. Rick Scott, who is running for the U.S. Senate, tweeted: “I’ve been to Puerto Rico 7 times & saw devastation firsthand. The loss of any life is tragic.”