Kasich on Trump’s Puerto Rico tweets: ‘It’s not appropriate’

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) pushed back Sunday on President Trump’s tweets attacking San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, dubbing them inappropriate. 

{mosads}”It’s not appropriate. I mean when people are in the middle of a disaster, you don’t start trying to criticize them,” Kasich told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union,” adding, “It’s just not the way I think it ought to be handled. It’s not the way we handle disasters here.” 

“Everything has to be directed that way. These people, their lives are in danger,” he said. 

Kasich’s comments come after Trump attacked Cruz in a series of tweets on Saturday, accusing her of showing poor leadership during the island’s recovery efforts.  

The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017

…Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017

…want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017

Cruz had issued an emotional plea for help on Friday, in which she condemned the federal government’s response to the disaster. 

“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. 

The Trump administration is under fire for the slow movement of aid, including food, water and medicine, to Hurricane Maria’s victims on Puerto Rico, which was left without power after the storm. Trump has cited the distance to the island from the mainland U.S. as one difficulty in the federal response, which he called “incredible” overall.