Mick Mulvaney, Office of Management and Budget Director, told CNN’s Jake Tapper that the media isn’t properly showing the federal government’s relief effort.
WATCH:
Tapper asked, “Director Mulvaney, as I’m sure you know, 95% of the people without power. 89% have no cell service, so they’re not seeing this news that the president is attacking, so beyond that obvious disconnect, these stories that CNN reports on the ground in Puerto Rico, firsthand accounts from American citizens in dire need without food, without water, without power, do you think these stories are fake?
Mulvaney responded by saying, “No–what y’all have done–I’ve watched a lot of the coverage of showing what’s happening on the ground that’s entirely accurate. I think what you’ve not shown, however, is the federal effort that we’ve got in place down there and the fact that the governor has been very complimentary of the administration.”
He continued, saying, “Again, I think there’s more than 70 mayors on the island of Puerto Rico, and yet you seem to spend a lot of attention on the one from San Juan.” (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Fellow Puerto Rico Mayor Rips San Juan Mayor — ‘She’s Not Participating In Any Meetings’)
“I think that’s where the president’s pushback is… Yes, it is slow to get the power turned back on and there’s a variety of reasons for that, including the condition of that infrastructure before the storm. But, the progress is there and the effort is there. And I think it’s unfair to say that the president hasn’t given it his very best effort,” he concluded.