House Democrats are crying foul after Republicans postponed a hearing on Puerto Rico disaster relief set to feature testimony from one of President Trump’s staunchest critics: San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz.
The Democrats accused GOP leaders of trying to silence Cruz — a charge the Republicans denied — and took great strides to amplify her voice during her visit to Washington.
{mosads}Cruz, who huddled with the Democrats Wednesday morning in the Capitol, emerged from the meeting and hammered the administration’s relief response as inadequate while sparing no denunciation of the commander in chief.
Trump had rated the response to Hurricane Maria “a 10.” Cruz said that’s accurate, if the scale were “out of 100.”
“He lives in an alternate reality that’s not the reality he wants to see. While we’re feeding our people he’s in Mar-a-Lago playing golf,” she said.
“While the American people have had a big heart, President Trump has had a big mouth, and he has used it to insult the people of Puerto Rico.”
Rep. Bennie Thompson (Miss.), senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said he was “at a loss” for why Wednesday’s hearing was postponed.
“When you’re in charge, you don’t have to give a reason, you just cancel it,” Thompson said.
An aide for the Homeland Security Committee, which is headed by Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Texas), said the Republicans were simply squeezed for time, forcing them to postpone the hearing.
“The minority requested their witness Friday afternoon, leaving the Committee only the weekend to plan for a panel of state and local witnesses,” the aide said in an email. “Due to this short turnaround time, we were not able to assemble a full second panel of witnesses to best reflect areas in the United States that were affected by recent natural disasters.”
The new date has yet to be announced.
The Democrats appearing beside Cruz wasted no time characterizing the response to Hurricane Maria, which battered Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as much less thorough than the response to hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which hit Texas and Florida, respectively, earlier in the summer.
“Everyone knows without a shadow of a doubt that there has been a difference in the response,” said Thompson.
“If it’s not racism, it’s abject incompetence.”
Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) said the administration “could never get away with this” if Puerto Rico were a state.
But he stopped short of saying the response has been tainted by racial bias. He said Trump is simply apathetic in his approach to the island territory.
“You have to put Trump in the ‘I-don’t-give-a-shit-about-the-people-of-Puerto-Rico’ column,” Gutierrez said.
“I don’t make it sound like we’re in an exclusive [club],” he added. “There’s a lot of people he doesn’t care about, right?”