Republican strategist Ana Navarro's voice shook on Sunday as she blasted President Donald Trump for his response to the disaster caused by Hurricane Maria's destruction in Puerto Rico.
During a segment on CNN's State of the Union, Navarro appeared livid at Trump for his neglect of the American citizens on the island and for his repeated Twitter attacks on left-leaning officials in Puerto Rica.
"The tweets are unconscionable" she told CNN host Jake Tapper. "I think they are unacceptable and I think there is no justifying them. These people are in great distress. What [San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz] is doing is voicing the anger, the desperation of people in Puerto Rico. People are desperate."
"They were slow, it was inadequate when it came to [the hurricane response in] Puerto Rico," she said of Trump's government. "This is an island where people cannot evacuate. They were in terrible distress to begin with. They needed more. It should not have taken days and days for the USNS Comfort to make its way there. It should not have taken a public campaign for the Jones Act to be reversed so that shipping could go there. There's been so many things."
According to Navarro, Puerto Rico would be better off if Trump spent less time tweeting about NFL players kneeling for the national anthem and more time focusing on disaster relief. Navarro said that the president "has got to shut up because he is in a gold-inlaid golf course right now while [Mayor Cruz] is wading in water up to her chest."
Tapper reminded the panel that Trump complained in a tweet that the mayor and other Puerto Rico leaders "want everything to be done for them."
Navarro appeared to become emotional as she responded: "It takes such an unspeakable level of gall for Donald Trump to say that the people of Puerto Rico want everything done for them. This is a guy who dodged the draft and this is a guy who's had his properties taken out of bankruptcy by other people, including the people of Puerto Rico. This is a guy who is sitting in a fancy golf course while people in Puerto Rico are dying."
"And he's going to say from that perch that that people of Puerto Rico who we see trying all day to get a little food, a little water, a little ice want everything done for them?" she exclaimed.
