Citing a study that the official death toll in Puerto Rico is much higher than the current number of 64 lives lost due to the effects of Hurricane María, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (all Democrats) held a press conference on Wednesday morning, calling for an independent 9/11-like commission to investigate the reasons why the death count was so underreported and how this impacted, according to them, the lack of a strong federal response on the island. Here is the entire video of that press conference:
Our founder Julio Ricardo Varela tweeted out some of the conference’s highlights:
.@HispanicCaucus calls for a 9/11-like independent commission to investigate #PuertoRicoDeathToll after Hurricane María.
— Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77) June 6, 2018
.@NydiaVelazquez, “Sadly, we will never know the true number of deaths.” #PuertoRico
— Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77) June 6, 2018
.@NydiaVelazquez tells @POTUS that this is no time for “victory laps” about #PuertoRico
— Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77) June 6, 2018
.@NydiaVelazquez calls for “A full impartial nonpartisan analysis of María’s toll and our government’s response” today. Also says that @GOP has been silent about #PuertoRicoDeathToll story.
— Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77) June 6, 2018
.@NydiaVelazquez says that the federal gov’t “must go deeper” into investigating death toll in #PuertoRico. Calls for an independent commission to explore this issue.
— Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77) June 6, 2018
“We know this: the number is much, much, much higher than the 64 reported,” @RepJoseSerrano says #PuertoRicoDeathToll
— Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77) June 6, 2018
.@RepJoseSerrano says that we need an independent commission to find out “what went wrong” in #PuertoRico
— Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77) June 6, 2018
.@RepRubenGallego says that lack of real federal response in #PuertoRico led to hurricane-related deaths on the island.
“This Administration’s lack of action and thought killed many of these Americans.”
— Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77) June 6, 2018
“#PuertoRico is President Trump’s most significant failure in his administration,” @RepEspaillat says.
— Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77) June 6, 2018
We need an accurate death toll and cannot rely on the work of academics, @RepEspaillat explains. #PuertoRicoDeathToll
— Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77) June 6, 2018
.@DarrenSoto starts with a moment of silence because according to him, the federal gov’t has never done a moment of silence for those who died in #PuertoRico
— Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77) June 6, 2018
.@DarrenSoto “God forbid another hurricane hits that island because they [the Trump administration] will have blood on their hands.” #PuertoRico
— Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77) June 6, 2018
.@DarrenSoto says #PuertoRico is a $90 billion disaster that has only gotten $18.9 billion in relief from the GOP and President Trump.
— Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77) June 6, 2018
.@NydiaVelazquez says that in Donald Trump’s mind, he thought the death count was low bc he was told at the time by the gov’t of #PuertoRico that it was just 16. She adds that this attitude led to a very weak federal response to PR.
— Julio Ricardo Varela (@julito77) June 6, 2018