Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló tweeted “#PuertoRicoIsTheUSA” after a White House spokesman referred to the island in an interview as “that country.”
White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said he made a mistake when he referred to Puerto Rico as “that country” twice in an MSNBC interview. When host Hallie Jackson asked Gidley if the reference was a “slip of the tongue,” Gidley replied, “That was a mistake. … Yes, 100 percent.”
In the interview, Gidley criticized Puerto Rico’s use of the disaster relief aid it was given after the island was devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017.