Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, said at a Bernie Sanders (I-VT) 2020 campaign rally in New York City on Saturday that thousands of Puerto Ricans died because of Donald Trump and that climate change is real and also is responsible for deaths in the U.S. territory.
“I am not a climate change expert,” Cruz said standing in front of a sea of “Bernie” signs. “I am a climate change survivor.”
“I don’t know how warm the ocean is going to get or how high the tides are gonna go,” Cruz said as the crowd chanted “Ask a scientist!”
“I do know this one thing,” Cruz said. “Climate change is real. Climate change kills. “
“Three thousand Puerto Ricans did not open their eyes this morning because of a president that was too concerned about looking good rather than doing good,” Cruz said.
“Two hurricanes not one had hit Puerto Rico,” Cruz said. “Times were hard. There was no food, no electricity. No water, no medicine.”
“Help was not getting there,” Cruz said. “We were dying and President Trump was killing us with his bureaucracy and his inefficiency.”
“You know he said he couldn’t get help to Puerto Rico because we are an island surrounded by water, lots and lots of water,” Cruz said. “Ocean water. That is a quote by the president of the United States.”
Congress authorized about $43 billion in relief for the island but only one third of it has been delivered. Democrats blame the Trump administration, but federal officials blame corruption and financial irregularities in the Puerto Rican government.
The number of dead from the hurricane ranges from 64 to 2,975, depending on the source.
Cruz made the remarks at the Sanders’ event where Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) formally endorsed the senator. Before her own election to Congress, Ocasio-Cortez worked for Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign.
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