Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer bashed President Donald Trump on Tuesday for saying his administration's response to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria last year was "an incredible, unsung success."
"This is an offensive, hurtful, and blatantly false comment from the president," Schumer, the New York Democrat, said on Twitter. "Nearly 3,000 of our fellow citizens died in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria.
"That is the complete opposite of 'success,'" he said.
In discussing preparations for this week's landing of Hurricane Florence on the Carolina coast, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that "I think that Puerto Rico was an incredible, unsung success."
"The job that FEMA and law enforcement and everybody did working along with the governor in Puerto Rico I think was tremendous," he said. "I think that Puerto Rico was an incredible, unsung success."
Trump's assessment came despite Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló last month raising the U.S. territory's official death toll from Maria from 64 to 2,975.
Hurricane Maria landed Sept. 20, 2017, and was estimated to have caused $100 billion in damage.
In discussing Florence, which is expected to make landfall Thursday, Trump said the U.S. was prepared for the storm, which he said would be "tremendously big and tremendously wet."
The hurricane is currently rated a category 4 storm and is expected to hit North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia by Thursday, according to news reports.
Trump has already approved emergency declarations from those states.
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