Puerto Rico Governor Endorses President Trump Dealing Blow To Dems In Florida
Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced just put the Dems hopes for Florida on notice by publicly endorsing President Trump’s re-election try.
Florida may very well come down to the Puerto Rican vote – this voting group is not monolithic and the Dems have taken them for granted for years. This year they are making a huge attempt to use that voting block to give Biden the edge in the key state of Florida. This is a big blow to their efforts.
“I ask all Puerto Ricans who are listening to go vote,” the Republican governor told Telemundo. “They have to go to vote, exercise their right to vote and evaluate who has represented being a person who thinks about Puerto Ricans and their needs at the most difficult moment: It is Donald Trump.”
From The Hill:
According to the Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Día, Vázquez Garced was scheduled to appear at a campaign event with Trump in Central Florida last Friday, with the governor saying she had been invited to travel on Air Force One to hold a meeting on Puerto Rico.
However, the event was canceled after news broke of Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis.
In Tuesday’s interview, when asked about Trump throwing paper towels to a group of Puerto Ricans during a 2017 visit to the island in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, Vázquez Garced said voters should not dwell on the image, adding that “nobody is perfect.”
The Republican governor has repeatedly brought attention to her rapport with Trump, suggesting at a February rally that the president would otherwise not provide federal funds to the island territory.
Last month, the Trump administration announced it would provide an additional $13 billion in aid to Puerto Rico to assist in infrastructure redevelopment following the 2017 natural disaster.
When asked why it had taken so long to release the aid for Puerto Rico, Trump said it had been in the works for some time and blamed Democrats for the delay.
However, the funds had already been allocated to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, meaning the administration could have distributed them at any point in the preceding months.
“This is clearly a desperate, political stunt to win over Puerto Rican supporters,” Tatiana Matta, Latino adviser to the Biden campaign, said in a statement following the announcement.
“For the thousands of families who had to leave the island, for all those we’ve lost, for those who still struggle everyday to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table, it is three years too little and too late.”
TELEMUNDO: Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced endorses President Donald Trump
— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) October 6, 2020