hospital ship uss comfort is teaming for puerto rico. distribution from the island has been a challenge. we had to remove debris, clear land slides. we have done things like air drops. at the request of puerto rico s governor, president trump granted a waiver of the jones maritime act to allow foreign flagged vessels to vary supplies from u.s. ports to puerto rico. the homeland security visor insist there s been no lack of capacity to get relief supplies in. i wasn t recommending to the president that he waive the jones act until i got the governor s request. once the governor called, i think we should listen and the president agreed to. the white house was defending the new tax reform plan in the face of criticism its huge tax break for the wealthiest americans. chief economic advisor gary cohn insisting it s aimed at middle income americans.
we re pushing forward. we know that 44 in operational capacity. they re trying to assess the others that are remaining. we re starting to get more capacity coming into the sides as airports and see ports are starting to be opened up and utilized. we ll have more of that interview online. the pentagon has named a three star general to lead the response. he served four tours of duty in iraq and one in afghanistan. the question now is why it took so long for this to happen. sew general s as we just heard from the fema administrator block long egtsz the unified command is working in puerto rico. the supplies are starting to move both by road and in some cases helicopter air drops. is that how you see it? are things beginning to work? yeah, in the burk particular terms it s tarting to work but it s want meeting the needs of other people. they re not making this up.
unsparing in his criticism of the trump administration s response to the hurricane maria destruction of puerto rico. he emphasized the need for a stronger military presence on the island right now. i heard a conversation earlier today where they indicated that if the task force commander wanted to do air drops, he could make a recommendation. that s bull bleep bleep now that he on the ground, he need to figure out orders and figure out what rules this isn t working. they try to put lipstick on this pig but it s moving too slow. the general pointed out forcefully today the following. air drops could have started days ago. he says para troopers should be dropped into puerto rico right now. he said they need to come and
you re dealing with geography. the only way into puerto rico is by air or by sea. there are very isolated villages that will be very difficult to get to even in normal circumstances, and that s part of the challenge. i seem to recall in haiti when i was down there that there were air drops. why wouldn t there be air drops into the mountainous interior of puerto rico? i don t have the details of how they could have been deployed. i think it s a logical question to put to the military people bhor do who are down there. as you know, they have a military commander there who should be trying to get all that together. thank you very much, admiral tha dr thad allen. tom price vowing to repay the governor for his seat on private charters, but just for his seat. is it too little too late? you re watching andrea mitchell reports on msnbc. products and services.
i will say this. and again administrator, we appreciate how often you come in and talk to us. but it s getting a little tiresome hearing from the administration about misinformation. yesterday tom boss ert was in the press room saying all the jones act stuff and federal stuff was misinformation. you spelled out how people from haiti who are not u.s. citizens didn t have red tape to get through to get the help. so i don t really care what the federal regulation is. we got help to haiti faster than to puerto rico. that s wrong. the general who helped turn around the katrina response criticized the administration in some comments he just made about being too slow. let s listen to him. i heard a conversation earlier today where they indicated that if the task force commander wanted to do air drops, he could make a recommendation. that s [ bleep ]. now that commander buchanan is on the ground, he need to be giving orders and figure out