San Juan Mayor Gets Emotional Blasting Trump Admin: ‘This is Not a Good News Story…People are Dying!’

San Juan’s mayor slams acting DHS Secretary Duke’s comments about Puerto Rico: “Where is the good news?” https://t.co/tEhSz1fKUS

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) September 29, 2017

Carmen Yulín Cruz, The Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico appeared on CNN Friday morning, to speak about the devastation that was wrought upon the island by Hurricane Maria and efforts to respond to the disaster.

CNN’s Alisyn Camerota played a clip of Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke’s (let’s say hamfisted) remarks from Thursday, in which she said the relief efforts made for “a really good story.”

Shaking her head, Cruz replied “well, maybe from where she’s standing it’s a good news story.”

“When you’re drinking from a creek, it’s not a good news story. When you don’t have food for a baby, it’s not a good news story.”

“I’m sorry, but that really upsets me and frustrates me,” Cruz continued. “I would ask you to come down here and visit the towns, and then make a statement like that. Which frankly, is an irresponsible statement, and at contrast with the statements of support that I’ve been getting since yesterday, when I got that call from the White House.

“Dammit, this is not a good news story,” Cruz said. “This is a people are dying story. This is a life or death story.”

“This is a story of a devastation that continues to worsen. Because people are not getting food or water…It is not a good news story when people are dying.”

“And I’m really sorry, but when you have people out there dying, literally. Scraping for food. Where is the good news?” she concluded.

Watch above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Aidan McLaughlin (@aidnmclaughlin) on Twitter

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