Senator Bernie Sanders sat down with CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union Sunday morning, and he did not mince words about Donald Trump’s disgusting attacks on Puerto Rico’s citizens and the mayor of their capital city.
Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz has been personally wading through the floodwaters of San Juan, helping in relief and recovery efforts, while Trump has been golfing at his resort in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Tapper reminded Sanders of Trump’s tweet about Puerto Ricans “wanting everything done for them,” and Bernie was visibly disgusted:
You know, speaking from his fancy golf club, playing golf with his billionaire friends, attacking the mayor of San Juan, who is struggling to bring electricity to the island, food to the island, water to the island, gas to the island…That is just, it is unspeakable. And I don’t know what world Trump is living in.”
After bringing up the fact that Puerto Ricans are, of course, Americans, Bernie went on to say that those citizens are entitled to the same help and attention as any other community in this country. That led Jake Tapper to his next question, of whether or not it was fair to wonder if race or ethnicity has played a role in the Trump administration’s horrible response to the disaster. Bernie was no less succinct:
Given the President’s history on race, given the fact that he, a few months ago told us that there were good people on both sides when neo-Nazis were marching in Charlottesville, yeah, I think we have a right to be suspect that he is treating the people of Puerto Rico in a different way than he has treated the people of Texas or Florida.”
I don’t know if America was even wondering, actually. Trump has made it very clear that he barely considers the American citizens in Puerto Rico humans, let alone the same as people in Houston or the Florida Keys. It’s nice to hear someone say it, though, so we can all feel a little less like we’re taking crazy pills as we watch this horror unfold.
Watch the exchange here:
Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images
