Former Puerto Rico Attorney General Jose Fuentes on Sunday took aim at San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, accusing her of attacking President Trump and using hurricane relief efforts to lay the groundwork for a gubernatorial bid.
“The mayor of San Juan is a political hack,” Fuentes said on CNN’s “New Day.”
Fuentes accused Cruz of making an about-face, saying she supported Trump until her political adviser suggested the idea of running for governor.
{mosads}”She is singing the praises of the president until her political adviser, [Rep.] Luis Gutiérrez from Chicago, got there and brought her the t-shirts and said, ‘Hey you want to run for governor, if she wants to run,” he continued until the anchor cut him off, pointing to audio issues.
The president launched a series of tweets attacking Cruz early Saturday, accusing the mayor of exhibiting poor leadership in the midst of the recovery efforts and claiming Puerto Rican leaders want the federal government to do everything for them.
His tweets came one day after Cruz issued an emotional plea for help, saying people are dying on the American territory and partially blaming stalled recovery efforts on the federal government’s inefficiency and red tape.
“I will do what I never thought I was going to do. I am begging, begging anyone who can hear us to save us from dying. If anybody out there is listening to us, we are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency,” Cruz said during a press conference.
The Trump administration has come under fire from critics who say it is failing to help the island as it struggles with widespread power outages, collapsed infrastructure and ongoing shortages of water and supplies.
The president is scheduled to travel to Puerto Rico on Tuesday after Hurricanes Maria, Harvey and Irma tore through the region in the last two months.