The media savaged Trump when he claimed Puerto Rico officials were mismanaging disaster aid. But he was right
by Becket Adams
| July 12, 2019 06:12 PM
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Remember when President Trump claimed in April that "corrupt or incompetent" Puerto Rico officials had badly bungled relief efforts following 2017's Hurricane Maria?
Remember how poorly politicos and journalists reacted to the president’s allegation, claiming that he was lying or being plain racist?
Well, it looks like the president was right. Puerto Rican officials were arrested this week on charges that they stole aid money, the Washington Examiner’s Tim Pearce reported:
The FBI has arrested two former Puerto Rico officials for funneling disaster aid payments to politically connected contractors.
The Wednesday arrests have prompted concern on Capitol Hill that the island’s corruption will blunt the effectiveness of a recently passed disaster aid bill. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., has called for Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló's resignation, according to the Washington Post.
The FBI indictment charges Puerto Rico's former Education Secretary Julia Keleher, former Health Insurance Agency Chief Ángela Ávila-Marrero, and four others with crimes related to grifting U.S. disaster aid. Keleher and Ávila-Marrero both served in Rosselló's administration before leaving in April and June, respectively. Rosselló himself is not under investigation. Grijalva is the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, which is overseeing the recovery effort on the island from Hurricane Maria in 2017.
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The arrests come weeks after Congress passed a $19 billion disaster aid bill to the island that is still struggling after the September 2017 hurricane severely damaged the island's infrastructure and power grid.
Weirdly enough, Trump sort of called this in April when he went on a mini-Twitter rant accusing Democratic lawmakers of playing games with a funding bill.
Puerto Rico "politicians are incompetent or corrupt," he tweeted, adding, "their government can’t do anything right, the place is a mess – nothing works. FEMA & the Military worked emergency miracles, but politicians like the crazed and incompetent Mayor of San Juan have done such a poor job of bringing the Island back to health."
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Sometimes you're the windshield, and sometimes you're the bug.
This should be a front and center news report on every outlet, but it isn't because of the agenda of the media.
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A flock of flirting flamingos is pure, passionate, pink pandemonium-a frenetic flamingle-mangle-a discordant discotheque of delirious dancing, flamboyant feathers, and flamingo lingo.
Of course they did. And they had all the supplies they needed, including a ton of bottled water, but they didn't want to do the work themselves to rebuild, even refused to clear the roads themselves so the water could be trucked in.
