ELIZABETH WARREN/NATURAL DISASTERS/PUERTO RICO/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Tuesday [1-22-19] that President Donald Trump treated Puerto Rico with ‘extraordinary disrespect’ in his response to the devastation that followed Hurricane Maria, singling out for scorn the Trump administration’s recent draft proposal to divert the island’s storm relief funding to pay for his border wall. In an interview on the campus of Puerto Rico’s oldest public university, Warren, making her first trip here since entering the Democratic presidential primary on New Year’s Eve, tied the President’s insistence on using federal money for the proposed barrier to his false claim that nearly 3,000 Americans in Puerto Rico ‘did not die’ in the aftermath of Maria as researchers had reported…Warren is the second Democrat with presidential aspirations to visit the island, a US territory that will hold a presidential primary next year, in 10 days. Julián Castro, who was secretary of housing and urban development during the Obama administration, made Puerto Rico his first campaign stop. Warren’s visit — and the prospect of other hopefuls to follow — underscores the island’s growing importance to Democratic voters around the country, many of whom remain angry and frustrated over the Trump administration’s post-hurricane response.”
–Gregory Krieg and MJ Lee, “Warren to Puerto Ricans: Trump does not respect you,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, January 22, 2019 8:47 pm