House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) contradicted President Donald Trump on Thursday, saying that he has “no reason to dispute” the death toll from Hurricane Maria.
“I have no reason to dispute these numbers. I was in Puerto Rico after the hurricane. It was devastating,” Ryan said during a press conference. “This was a horrible storm. I toured the entire island. It’s an isolated island that lost its infrastructure and power for a long time. You couldn’t get to people for a long time on the island because roads were washed out, power was gone and the casualties mounted for a long time.”
Ryan did not place any blame on the federal government for the high death toll, however.
“This is a devastating storm that hit an isolated island,” he said. “And that’s really no one’s fault. It’s just what happened.”
Earlier on Thursday, Trump claimed falsely that the death toll from Hurricane Maria, 2,975, was falsely inflated by Democrats trying to make him look bad.
Watch part of Ryan’s comments below:
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) September 13, 2018
Trump makes outrageous assertion, Ryan blandly rebuts it, rinse and repeat. As predictable as the tide tables.
You’re right, Paul, for once in your life. No one’s fault that a devastating storm hit an isolated island. No dispute there.
The response of the Federal government and, in particular, the rocket shots of paper towels to resident victims of that devastating storm that hit an isolated island? Yeah, we hold you and all of your minions accountable for that one.
What your party and your President did to PR will go down in history with the great response in Louisiana and Mississippi to Katrina. Worthless, useless and costing a hell of a lot of lives. History will hold you accountable, my friend, no matter what conservative think tank picks you up off the bottoms of their shoes after the election.
So Ryan said, yeah, 3000 people died, nobody’s fault, shit happens.
What a vile and pathetic excuse for a human being.
Atlas Shirked
Lt. General Honore has been making the rounds and talking about what more could’ve been done to help Puerto Rico. Doesn’t pull any punches.