Trump cited misinformation from Geraldo Rivera. Daniel Dale of the Toronto Star did a great job cutting through Trump’s crap.
The president is now citing Geraldo in support of his hurricane deatherism. There's no apparent basis for the claim that "70% of the power was out before the storm." pic.twitter.com/QyTvacqpHT
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 14, 2018
In summary: according to news reports a day prior to Maria hitting Puerto Rico, 4% of Puerto Rican customers (60,000 of 1,500,000) did not have power at the time — not the 70% the president is claiming to spread his ludicrous conspiracy theory. https://t.co/2h05oDqoat
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 14, 2018
One more point of fact: Trump is wrong to suggest there was nothing in between the "64 deaths" count and the "3,000 deaths" estimate. In August, Puerto Rico reported to Congress that there were 1,427 more deaths than normal over the 4 months post-Maria. https://t.co/xbn16KYM95
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 15, 2018
Here’s a column from someone who calculated the death toll:
Opinion: We calculated the deaths from Hurricane Maria. Politics played no role. https://t.co/8QsaRaJ3hR
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 15, 2018
Chuck Todd: “Do you believe any of these studies were done to make the president look bad?”
FEMA chief Brock Long: “I mean, there’s, there’s, uh, I don’t think the studies – I don’t know why the studies were done.”
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 16, 2018
Sad! 