Report reporter tremain lee. Miss michigan is here with me. Well hear from those in the bar tonight about what they think of the president. Our Special Coverage continues tomorrow night when we bring your our town hall with flint native Michael Moore. You do not want to miss that. But we begin tonight with a stark illustration of just whats at stake with the potentially catastrophic hurricane now bearing down on the east coast. Prompting mandatory Evacuation Orders from more than a million people. The president of the United States today sat in the oval office and bragged about his performance in dealing with the biggest disaster he has overseen as president , the hurricane that devastated puerto rico. I think puerto rico was incredibly successful. Puerto rico was actually our toughest one of all because its an island. So you just you cant truck
things onto it. Everythings by boat. We moved a hospital into puerto rico, a tremendous Military Hospital in the form of a ship. You know that. And i actually think and the governors been very nice, hell tell you were doing a great job. The hardest one we had by far was puerto rico because of the island nature. I actually think it was one of the best jobs thats ever been done with respect to what this is all about. Puerto rico got hit not with one hurricane, but with two. And the problem with puerto rico is their electric grid and their Electric Generating Plan was dead before the storms ever hit. It was in very bad shape, it was in bankruptcy, had no money. It was largely, you know, was largely closed. And when the storm hit they had no electricity essentially before the storm. When the storm hit, that took it out entirely. The job that fema and Law Enforcement and everybody did working along with the governor in puerto rico, i think, was
tremendous. I think that puerto rico was an incredible, unsung success. Texas, we have been given a pluses for. Florida, weve been given a pluses for. I think in a certain way the best job we did was puerto rico, but nobody would understand that. I mean, its harder to understand. It was a very hard, very hard thing to do because of the fact they had no electric before the storms hit it was dead, as you probably know. So weve gotten a lot of receptivity, a lot of thanks for the job weve done in puerto rico. The unsung success, the president s talking about there, the death toll from Hurricane Maria was formally raised just this month to nearly 3,000 people. It took nearly a year for power to be fully restored to the island, a failure that helped contribute to hundreds of deaths in the aftermath of that storm. Thats the record that donald trump is today celebrating. Our president who today pumped his fists when arriving at a September 11th memorial event,
whose white house is actively working against him to safeguard the nation, according to Bob Woodwards new book, and recent anonymous oped in the New York Times and looks at what happened in puerto rico and sees not an unfathomable humanitarian tragedy and governing female yir, but a rousing success. That man is now once again charged with protecting the country from disaster. Joining me now, representative luis gutierrez. Hes giving up his seat in Congress Next year, move to the island next year to help with the recovery efforts. Your response to what the president had to say about puerto rico today . It might be, although im sure that there are others that will compete. One of his just biggest fabrications and lies. How do you celebrate and declare a success when officially now the deaths are over 3,000 . And, you know, chris, thats the
latest study. One accepted by the government of puerto rico that never wanted to change the numbers and was complicit with this president in trying to hide the real calamity and deaths and the lack of action of the American Government. But let me say this. The harvard study said it was over 4,000. And, chris, i was there within ten days. I was there within ten days, not because the government allowed me to go facilitate it, because donald trump did everything he could to stop any oversight, over the conduct of the American Government, and what it was doing to facilitate. I think the mayor of san juan was absolutely correct, you let people die. And, you know, if you think a success is having the deaths of people on your hands, let me because i think its important to put it into context, chris. He said two things. He said, well, you know, the people of puerto rico would be better off, but they want us to do everything for them. So he called us lazy. And then he said, wow, youre busting my budget. He called us worthless, or not of sufficient government. This is a president of the United States with a catastrophic situation in puerto rico unprecedented in puerto rico with thousands of people dying and saying how expensive and how lazy we are. The only one who was lazy was you, mr. President. You were lazy, and You Werent On Duty and people died because of it. You know, what i keep thinking about, as we look at Hurricane Florence as it comes towards the carolina coast at a category four, very, very dire warnings about what it could bring, there has still, as far as i can tell, be no really thorough or systematic after action report about how it was the American Government allowed 3,000 americans to die in an american territory, and that seems relevant to whatever Hurricane Preparedness happens in the upper 50 states. Yeah. Well, he bragged today, chris, about how ready he was. And he kept telling us How Big The Storm was. Because, you know, he likes using monosyllable words like big and huge and great. And he used them all to describe the oncoming hurricane, instead of reassuring the American Public about what was there to make sure that they could be kept safe. Everything is huge and big. And, of course, you want to know what i fear . Its the calamity. Because of the lack of coordination of the government with the National Guard and with local government, the lack of responsiveness and preparedness of this government because the president , he wants to find out who is the one that wrote that oped piece about the chaos in the white house, because he wants the justice department. He is so consumed by the calamity that exists and the chaos that exists that hes not really prepared and focused. Because he spends every weekend golfing instead of preparing. You know, 15 of the top managers at fema are acting. Theyre not even in their
permanent positions. They havent even taken time to give them their jobs. Let me just say this, too, because i think its important, chris. As we look at crises like this, whether its the muslim ban, the Transgender Community being eliminated from the military, any of these terrible, hateful things this president does, let me say this, on behalf of the people of puerto rico, how thankful they are to the American People and to the American Public that has put in tens of millions of dollars in real resources and made a difference. And has stopped deaths from occurring. I want to congratulate the American People and that resistance that exists on so many levels. A final thought about this, if democrats were to take the house this fall, do you think it would be on the agenda to actually do some oversight over the response in puerto rico . That is going to be one of our most important actions. And yes, i wont be in congress. Yes, next march i intend to be in the island of puerto rico. Im going to be there to facilitate. But let me tell you what im going to do, chris. Ive been to pennsylvania where donald trump won by 40,000 votes. And you know where i went . I went into smaller towns in pennsylvania where there are large puerto rican pockets of voters. Ive been to florida. Im going there this coming weekend. The president should understand there are going to be electoral consequences because hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans had to flee the island because of what this government did not do and how it did not intervene. They now live in florida, they now live in pennsylvania. And, mr. President , you should know, they are registering to vote, they are mobilizing, they are organizing and the people on the island of puerto rico are going to implore, our going to urge, are going to inspire the Puerto Rican Community of florida and of pennsylvania to come out and vote in 2020 for a
president that loves the people of the island of puerto rico, and loves the people of the United States of america. All right, representative luis gutierrez, thank you so much for being with me. Thank you. With me now, democratic representative dan kildee of michigan who is currently inside his district, which includes flint. To what your colleague said, do you feel i mean, everyones Walking Around washington right now in the wake of this woodward book, the anonymous oped, it seems like the open secret is now out in the open. Is this the way that people in washington understand the president , fundamentally hes unfit and cant actually dispatch his duties and everyones working around that . Yeah, the things that bob woodward wrote, the thing that the Anonymous Author or authors wrote is essentially Common Knowledge in washington among democrats and republicans, among people inside and outside the white house, this is an open secret. They have to deny it when its written on a piece of paper because the president operates
on the assumption that he can say anything and do anything, and the Two Dont Have to match at all. He hes a man child. Thats what were dealing with. You know, Congress Gutierrez talked about how hes not focused. It also seems in these circumstances the less focus he has the better. Honestly, do you want the president to really focus on really crucial life and death matters like Hurricane Preparedness matters right now or do you want people to handle it . We want the president of the United States to be capable of focusing on these big questions. Thats the struggle we face. This particular president , of course, i mean, we dont know what his values are, we dont know what he believes because hes a purely transactional person. He has no core beliefs or values. Because of that doesnt mean we dont have big problems in this country. Its interesting were talking about puerto rico. The night of the state of the union, i ran into the mayor of san juan, puerto rico and she recognized me from this network. She looked at me and said we
have something in common, we both represent people that this administration is completely overlooking and completely forgotten. In puerto rico they say that its okay and its over when its not over. In flint, they say its okay, and its over, when its not over. They say the waters fine when it isnt. In puerto rico they say nobody died when people did die. They can deny, he can deny facts in front of his very face and go on with his day. Thats the frightening thing. This is you know, in this case, in the case of puerto rico and in flint is where you see just how stark all this is, and how high the stakes are for competent governance. Puerto rico and flint, its fair to say, are the site of the two biggest American Governing disasters. For sure. Of the last five years. No question about it. Ongoing disasters. Ongoing disasters. About what has happened here and the drinking water, has this administration been helpful . Do you feel like the federal government has gotten your back or helped this community . No, and, in fact, they did a sort of moment of celebration when they delivered, finally, in
the first few months of their administration, the resources that i and our senators got and that president obama committed to. But beyond that, theyve done virtually nothing. You just said the water here is not safe to drink. No one trusts it, and for good reason. Right. That, to me that gets to Something Real key here. Theres all kinds of ways in which the federal government is going to issue orders, and local governments are going to issue orders to folks in carolinas to evacuate. And theres a question about whether those folks trust what the government says. What ive observed, being around talking to people in flint is the trust is entirely broken. It is. Entirely broken, no one can possibly trust the government, particularly the state government, the federal government after what happened. To be fair, people in flint, for good reason, dont make distinctions between levels and layers of government. Of course, right. They were told the water was safe when the government knew that it was not safe, knew that it was dangerous, knew that it would hurt people. How can they be expected to trust anything anyone says . Flint is not some sort of an anomaly. Fingerprint flint is a warning to the rest of the country. If we dont take back control of our government and have people in positions that we trust, we cannot ever rebuild the trust. Its interesting, were talking about this president , our constitution, the framers anticipated the potential of a rogue president. I have to say this. Donald trump by himself is not the problem. And this is where i think the moment that occurs to us right now is so critical. The problem is the people who were supposed to put a check on that president , to ensure that the president was still there, that people could have some kind of faith in their government are the people in the congress of the United States. And the majority in congress, the republicans, have essentially handed their voting cards to donald trump and said, look, youre in charge. Youre completely in charge. They have wrapped their arms so tightly around his ankles, they will go anywhere he takes them. You know, i think today on September 11th, when people are
thinking about be americans we lost in the attack 17 years ago around 3,000 americans who were murdered on that day, and about thinking about oversight, right . There was the 9 11 commission, how did this happen . A huge commission was put together to get to the bottom of it. 3,000 americans died in puerto rico, and as far as i can tell, nothing, theres been no commission, very few hearings, no sustained inquiry how it is that 3,000 americans died on this governments watch. You know, one of the people in the white house whos never been threatened with the loss of his job, whos been there throughout, who whispers in Donald Trumps ear is a guy who early in the administration spoke a moment of truth that really tells the story of this administration, stephen miller. He stood up and said the president s authority will not be questioned. The president will not be questioned. That was really that was a moment that now has stuck with us for all this time because the position that they take is that
we can do anything we want and you cant touch us. Whats crazily surreal, the same time they say that, everyone in the white house is like get a load of this guy as soon as he leaves the room. It is true. They dont deserve a pat on the back. Whoever prothawrote that oped, dont deserve that. This government is broken, it is threatened, and Congress Needs to do its job and rein this guy in. We have lots of different tools available to us. People talk about the 25th amendment, talk about all about the potential for impeachment. Tomorrow when we go into session, we have tools right in front of us to tamp down the authority of the president and tell him he cant do these crazy things hes doing. So impeachment, yeah, 25th amendment, whatever, do our jobs that we swore an oath to today and we can rein in the danger this president brings to us. My 56 days out, hurricane
bearing down on the east coast. Tomorrow theres a floor vote on another round of tax cuts. Theyre moving the tax cut 2. 0 do they have a hearing or anything . Trying to get it through Ways And Means and get it to the floor as fast as they can. Thank you for your time. Thank you, chris. Much more to come live in flint, michigan, the state that delivered one of the most shocking Election Results in 2016, already shaping up to be a key fight in the upcoming midterms with both mike pence and joe biden hitting the Campaign Trail here. The faight for michigan next. Take this left. If you listen real hard you can hear the whales. Oop. You hear that . vo our Subaru Outback lets us see the world. Sometimes in ways we never imagined. Coming to you live from churchills in flint, michigan. This is, of course, a Battleground State with a lot at stake in just 56 days when voters go to the polls. Tomorrow, Vice President mike pence is headed to Western Michigan to stump for the trump tax cuts, meeting with the devos family. And as democrats bring in their own big gun, Vice President joe biden heading to Bloomfield Hills tomorrow. Meeting with gretchen witmer. For more on whats happening, im joined by brian dickerson, a columnist at the detroit free press, lauren gibbons, and sta