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WASHINGTON – More than 130 Democrats from the House and Senate signed a letter to President Trump demanding he apologize to the people of Puerto Rico for refusing to accept the official death toll for Hurricane Maria.

President Trump is working around the clock during the government shutdown trying to negotiate with Pelosi and Schumer to secure border wall funding. The Democrats however, are partying at a beach resort in Puerto Rico on day 22 of the government shutdown. The Democrats don’t care about the 800,000 federal workers who are currently not receiving a paycheck. Democrat Senator Bob Menendez was spotted hanging out with a bikini-clad “colleague” on the beach in Puerto Rico three weeks into the shutdown without a care in the world. The Hispanic Caucus of liberal Democrats is holding their retreat at a posh...

Julián Castro, the former housing secretary and former mayor of San Antonio, announced on Saturday that he would run for president, one of the most high-profile Latino Democrats ever to seek the party’s nomination. His first campaign stop will be in Puerto Rico, where he will speak on Monday at the Latino Victory Fund’s annual summit and meet with residents still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria. Later in the week, his campaign said, he will go to New Hampshire. Mr. Castro, in prepared remarks that he was set to deliver in San Antonio on Saturday, said, “When my grandmother...

SONIA SOTOMAYOR, ASSOCIATE JUSTICE, UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT: Ah, a very complicated question. After becoming a lawyer and judge of two courts, before going to the Supreme Court, the greatest difficulty is the expectation of others that, because I was Latina, I didn’t have the intelligence to be able to do this job. I don't know if you know that during this process of confirmation to the Supreme Court there were many who said, ´she does not have the intelligence to do this job well.’ There are many who have changed their minds about that, with the passage of time.

"And we stand with Puerto Rico, and we are helping them to rebuild stronger and better than ever before.” - President Donald J. Trump HISTORIC RECOVERY EFFORT: The Federal Government has helped lead a historic recovery effort in Puerto Rico in the year since Hurricane Maria hit. •FEMA has joined with Federal partners and the Government of Puerto Rico to undertake one of the largest post-disaster reconstruction efforts in United States history. •Never before has FEMA coordinated federal resources to rebuild an entire island of this size. •The Federal response to Hurricane Maria marked the largest and longest Federal response...

President Trump on Thursday night doubled down on his statements about the 3,000 death toll in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria last year. Trump retweeted a segment from Fox Business host Lou Dobbs praising the president's statements. "The numbers were inflated and the president was right to call out the organizations who threw out science, statistics, and evidence to discredit the Trump administration," Dobbs claimed during the segment. Dobbs pointed to the source of the 3,000 number, a study from George Washington University's Milken Institute, which estimated the number of "excess deaths" that occurred from Hurricane Maria, as opposed to...

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló tore into President Trump on Friday as he continued to deny a scientific study which found that 3,000 people died on the island following a series of hurricanes last year. “Mr. President — I’d very much be willing to walk you through the scientific process of the study and how @Gwtweets arrived at the excess mortality number estimate. There is no reason to underscore the tragedy we have suffered in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria,” Rosselló tweeted. “In the meantime, I hope you consider sending a message of support to show you stand with all...

“When Trump visited the island territory last October, OFFICIALS told him in a briefing 16 PEOPLE had died from Maria.” The Washington Post. This was long AFTER the hurricane took place. Over many months it went to 64 PEOPLE. Then, like magic, “3000 PEOPLE KILLED.” They hired.... 10:05 PM - 14 Sep 2018 ....GWU Research to tell them how many people had died in Puerto Rico (how would they not know this?). This method was never done with previous hurricanes because other jurisdictions know how many people were killed. FIFTY TIMES LAST ORIGINAL NUMBER - NO WAY! 10:23 PM -...

Ocasio-Cortez to Trump on Puerto Rico deaths: 'My own grandfather died in the aftermath of the storm. Uncounted' Washington (CNN) — US House Democratic candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez issued a sobering response to President Donald Trump's false claim that 3,000 people did not die in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Following Trump's Thursday morning tweet, Ocasio-Cortez shared her own family's story -- noting that her grandfather died in the aftermath of the storm. "My own grandfather died in the aftermath of the storm. Uncounted. Thousands of Puerto Ricans have similar stories. They have lost children, friends, & family...

A Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who wrote a biography of President Trump said the president doesn’t view non-white people “as people.” David Cay Johnston wrote the 2016 bestseller “The Making of Donald Trump” and has reportedly known Trump for over two decades. He appeared on Dean Obeidallah‘s SiriusXM show on Friday to discuss Trump’s false claim that 3,000 people did not die in Puerto Rico following massive hurricane last year. “Donald does not see people who are not white as people,” Johnston said. “And he’s been like this for a long, long time. This not a newly acquired or strange...

President Trump appears to be alone in his baseless assertion that Hurricane Maria's death toll was inflated "by the Democrats in order to make [him] look as bad as possible."[cut] Rick Scott ✔ @ScottforFlorida I disagree with @POTUS– an independent study said thousands were lost and Gov. Rosselló agreed. I've been to Puerto Rico 7 times & saw devastation firsthand. The loss of any life is tragic; the extent of lives lost as a result of Maria is heart wrenching. I'll continue to help PR 11:45 AM - Sep 13, 2018 11.4K 4,804 people are talking about this Additionally, the...

US President Donald Trump is disputing official findings that nearly 3,000 people died in Puerto Rico as a result of last year's storms. "3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico," Mr Trump wrote on Twitter, without offering evidence for the claim. He accused Democrats of inflating the official death toll to "make me look as bad as possible". The official figure was released last month after an independent study. On Thursday, Mr Trump tweeted that Democrats were attacking him "when I was successfully raising Billions of Dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico". The Republican...

Jeb Bush criticized President Trump's controversial tweets about the death toll in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. "Incredibly disheartening comments from our President," Bush tweeted Thursday. Trump beat the former Florida governor for the Republican nomination for president in 2016. Trump sparked controversy earlier Thursday when he tweeted that the estimated 3,000 death toll was intentionally inflated by Democrats. The 3,000 approximation comes from a George Washington University study that tried to total how many "excess deaths" occurred because of Hurricane Maria and would not have happened in the absence of the cyclone. Those involved with the study have emphasized...

President Donald Trump on Thursday denied the massive death toll estimate in Puerto Rico caused by Hurricane Maria last year, claiming without evidence that Democrats invented the numbers "to make me look as bad as possible." "3,000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. When I left the Island, AFTER the storm had hit, they had anywhere from 6 to 18 deaths," Trump tweeted Thursday morning. "As time went by it did not go up by much. Then, a long time later, they started to report really large numbers, like 3,000." Trump added that, "This...

Democrats and the media have been pounding President Donald Trump over the past few days, as Hurricane Florence nears the Carolinas, over his alleged insensitivity to deaths in Puerto Rico last year from Hurricane Maria. On Thursday morning, President Trump pushed back on Twitter, alleging that Democrats had inflated the death toll “in order to make me look as bad as possible.” That led to more criticism, with the Associated Press accusing Trump of making claims “without evidence.” But Trump is correct. His opponents — including the media — have strained for more than a year to turn Hurricane Maria...

George Washington University is standing behind a study produced by university researchers that determined Hurricane Maria led to the deaths of nearly 3,000 Puerto Ricans. The statement backing up GW's study comes hours after President Trump on Thursday morning called into question the death toll, claiming it was inflated by Democrats. "We stand by the science underlying our study which found there were an estimated 2,975 excess deaths in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria," reads the statement from GW's Milken Institute School of Public Health, obtained by NBC. "We are confident that the number - 2,975 - is the most...

Death tolls are the primary way we understand the impact of a disaster. And for nearly two weeks after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, as a humanitarian crisis was intensifying, the death toll was frozen at 16. “Sixteen people certified,” Trump said on October 3 during his visit to the island, repeating a figure confirmed by the territory’s governor. "Everybody watching can really be very proud of what's taken place in Puerto Rico." It was a moment that crystallized two conflicting narratives about the Puerto Rico disaster. The first one, from the federal government and Puerto Rico’s governor, is of...

The federal response to Hurricane Maria is under scrutiny again after photos show what appear to be millions of water bottles meant for victims of the storm still sitting on a runway in Ceiba, Puerto Rico. The photos began circulating on social media Tuesday, the same day President Trump again praised the government's response to Maria during a meeting with top DHS and FEMA officials. Marty Bahmonde, a senior official at FEMA, confirmed to CBS News' David Begnaud that the agency delivered the water to the island. From there, the details are unclear. Bahmonde said they don't track specific shipments...

President Donald Trump has been criticised for hailing the US response to the deadly Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico last year as "tremendous". The mayor of its capital tweeted: "If he thinks the death of 3,000 people is a success God help us all." Puerto Rico only finished restoring full power last month, 11 months after the hurricane hit. A recent report says 8% left the island after the hurricane and many died due to poor health care and other services. The island's Governor Ricardo Rossello issued a statement on Tuesday night, describing Maria as "the worst natural disaster in...

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz attacked the Trump administration on Wednesday after the island's estimated death toll from last year's hurricanes rose to almost 3,000. "What came out of the White House yesterday was, 'we're very proud of what we did, and very committed,' " Cruz said in an interview with CNN, paraphrasing a statement released by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders Tuesday night. "The Trump administration killed the Puerto Ricans with neglect. The Trump administration led us to believe that they were helping when they weren't really up to par and they didn't allow other countries...