Lin-Manuel Miranda on Puerto Rico: ‘I’ve Never Seen a President Attack the Victims of a Natural Disaster’
Lin-Manuel Miranda appeared on Good Morning America Friday to discuss his latest song, released to raise money for hurricane recovery efforts in Puerto Rico, as well as his tweets criticizing President Donald Trump’s response to the crisis.
After discussing the lengths he went to record the song with people still on the hurricane-ravaged island, the composer and playwright expanded on the song’s title “Almost Like Praying”:
“Thoughts and prayers are great but thoughts and prayers are not enough,” he explained. “We need more. We need action. We need the governmental response to be equal to the response of the people which, you know, I have never had more hope in the American people and people all over the world.”
“I go to my Twitter feed, it’s people breaking their piggy banks, it’s employers matching employee donations,” he continued. “We are not the issue. If our government can step up to where the people are, we’ll be on the road to recovery a lot faster.”
“Talking about Twitter feeds,” ABC’s George Stephanopoulos said, referencing Miranda’s very viral tweet saying Trump is “going straight to hell” for his response to the crisis and attacks on the San Juan Mayor.
“You’re full of hope right now — you were full of anger this weekend as well. Do you think things are changing now, is the government stepping up?”
“I don’t know,” Miranda replied, noting that his tweets made news because he rarely gets political on his Twitter feed.
“And yet I’ve never seen a sitting president attack the victims of a natural disaster before,” he said. “That is without precedent and that is why my words were without precedent.”
On Trump’s trip to Puerto Rico, Miranda asked: “Are we increasing aid, are we increasing troops? Short of that, I don’t need to see another photo op, I need action and I need people to help my island.”
“It’s dire, we’re still in a humanitarian crisis, and we need all the help we can get.”
Watch above, via ABC.
[image via screengrab]
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