Trump Bashes Puerto Rico, Brags Federal Help; Puerto Ricans Responds to Trump's Twitter Attack; HHS Secretary Resigns Amid Private Jet Scandal
ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. Thank you for being here. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. Breaking news tonight. President Trump attacking the Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico for, quote, poor leadership after she begged for more federal help to help save people from dying in the wake of Hurricane Maria. CNN's Anderson Cooper has just spoken to that Mayor. We will bring you that in just a moment. But, first, President Trump is saying the federal response is going great, but here is the reality on the ground 10 days after the storm. Ninety-five percent of the people don't have power. Only 50 percent have access to clean water. And communication remains a major problem with only 11 percent of cell towers working. Now, the President, who is set to visit Puerto Rico on Tuesday, tweeted this from his private golf club. The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complementary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump. Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan and others in Puerto Rico who are not able to get their workers to help. They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. Ten thousand federal workers now on the island doing a fantastic job. Results of recovery efforts will speak much louder than complaints by San Juan Mayor. Doing everything we can to help great people of P.R. Now, the Mayor responded by saying: the goal is one, saving lives. This is a time to show our true colors. We cannot be distracted by anything else. CNN's Anderson Cooper is joining us now from San Juan. Anderson, you just spoke to Mayor Cruz. What did she say?</s>ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I did. I spoke to her right outside the building where she is based in San Juan. She clearly wants to try to move on from this. She doesn't want to get into a tit for tat with the President of the United States, but she did respond to my questions. Here is part of that interview.</s>COOPER: You woke up this morning to tweets from the President of the United States. What did you make of what he said?</s>MAYOR CARMEN YULIN CRUZ, SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO: I smiled. I smiled, really. I have no time for small politics or for comments that really don't add to the situation here.</s>COOPER: He said that -- he talked about you, your leadership, and he said they -- I don't know if he meant they, the leaders, or they, the people of Puerto Rico, want everything done for them.</s>CRUZ: I believe it -- you know, it was kind of funny because I got them real later -- late because we don't have internet. It's spotty at best. But he did say that we wanted things to be done, and, you know, the truth is staring us in the face. Just today, I was telling you, we had to evacuate yet another hospital because the generator caught on fire. So this is in another hospital that will not be able to work for another week. We transported 14 patients from one of our facilities. The dam in the eastern part of the island is two towns -- for the first time that I know of in my lifetime in Puerto Rico, two towns are being completely evacuated. People are still coming and saying -- the mayor of San Lorenzo, the mayor of Comerio, the mayor of Ponse, the mayor of Loiza are saying, you know, where's the help? We need it. Please, help us.</s>COOPER: Do you feel that your speaking out has been effective?</s>CRUZ: I don't know. But if it has, you know, good.</s>COOPER: The President also said in a tweet early this morning that you had been nice to him early on, but that Democrats told you, you have to be nasty toward him.</s>CRUZ: You know, I don't know. Maybe he's used to women who have to be told what to do. You know, that's not who we are here in San Juan. But really, you know --</s>COOPER: And have Democrats said anything to you --</s>CRUZ: No.</s>COOPER: -- about how you should treat him?</s>CRUZ: Not at all. Actually, I am not a Democrat. I share values with the Democratic Party in the United States, but I do not participate in the Democratic Party. So it's interesting.</s>COOPER: You also --</s>CRUZ: Senator Marco Rubio sent representatives to here, so he -- he's not a Democrat. And I just think he's looking for an excuse for things that are not going well.</s>COOPER: Brock Long, the FEMA administrator, has said today about you --</s>COOPER: I'm sorry. I had a problem there with the end of the tape. But I was asking her about comments that Brock Long, the FEMA administrator, had said that she -- that there's a unified command and that's essential to organization here, and that she needs to go to the joint field office and basically kind of get linked in on what's going on. She certainly, you know, took issue with that. She says she has -- she is at a separate building, a separate office, than the rest of the government offices, the FEMA response. She said she has two FEMA envoys who are based in her office, and she felt that was satisfactory.</s>CABRERA: So, Anderson, I know you spent a lot of time today, beyond talking with the Mayor of San Juan, you've gone to some of the other parts of Puerto Rico who have been affected, talking to those folks in those places. Are they still feeling that they are waiting for the help they need?</s>COOPER: Absolutely. I mean, I think everybody is waiting in one sense or another. People are waiting on long gas lines. People are waiting for fuel. People are waiting at ATMs because there's a shortage of cash, and they're desperate for cash because they can't buy things with credit cards in any places or with food stamps. People are waiting to get more supplies, waiting for stores to open so that they can use what cash they have to actually buy goods. So there is a lot of waiting, and there's certainly a lot of frustration. People are, you know, friendly and calm and being extraordinarily patient. I was in a Aguadilla, a town all the way on the west -- the western end of Puerto Rico today, and they're -- you know, they say they've had some FEMA people there who were basically kind of there to see what the needs of the community may be. They've gone to the hospital as well. I talked to the hospital administrator. He said he finally got the Army there yesterday, brought -- filled them up with diesel fuel, which he was very grateful for. But he's very concerned about the safety of his patients. There were some New York City Fire Department guys there who on their own, basically, had requisitioned some supplies, gotten a truck, and driven it to this town. And they were handing out MREs, and those were volunteers from the New York Fire Department. So, you know, people are grateful, but, you know, the idea that, you know, the President saying communities need to be involved, I can tell you, from what I saw today and from what I've seen yesterday as well, communities are involved here. It's communities who are cleaning up the streets. It's communities who are clearing the roads. It is communities who are cooking. You know, a group of people on a street are cooking in a house and feeding the people on that block as best they can. So the idea that communities are just sitting around is just simply not accurate.</s>CABRERA: I know you've been speaking with first responders. And what is their feeling and your understanding of where the gaps are right now, the reason why they aren't able to help more people more quickly? Is it sheer numbers that are lacking?</s>COOPER: You know, look, they're certainly helping people, and they're -- you know, they're doing incredibly important work, and it's, logistically, a difficult thing. But, you know, this notion that all the roads are blocked and therefore that's a big thing, that's really not the case anymore. The roads to a lot of places are open. Like this fire -- these guys from the New York City Fire Department, they were able to get a truck of supplies in, really, on their own, and they were handing out. This was not a FEMA-authorized operation. And I've talked to a number of first responds today, about six of them talking off the record. And each of them, in separate places, said to me in different ways but using quite strong language that the organizational structure that they -- as they have seen, and these are guys at probably the bottom of the food chains. These are not leaders of the relief efforts. These are people who are here volunteering, who want to, you know, get out there, who want to do everything they can do, and use their skills. They're not able to get out. Many of them say -- of the ones who talked to me today said that they've been sitting around for days, just waiting for, you know, orders of where to go and what to do. And, you know, some of them are just kind of trying to volunteer and do whatever they can and take matters into their own hands and cut through the bureaucracy. But there's a lot of frustration, you know. And the word, the phrase, I kept hearing all day was effed up from these first responders.</s>CABRERA: That speaks to the frustration indeed. Anderson Cooper, thank you for that report. Thank you for getting us that reaction, as well, from the Mayor. Now, in the last 24 hours, reporting on this Puerto Rico crisis got personal and emotional for CNN Correspondent Leyla Santiago. She is a Puerto Rico native, born and raised there on the island. Leyla's family still lives in a small town nestled near the mountains. Now, days ago, when Hurricane Maria struck, it battered Leyla's hometown with devastating force. This is Corozal, Puerto Rico. Homes there destroyed, power lines knocked over, water is still scarce. Leyla's family is OK. Her hometown is not. This is the moment she heard her family say, we survived.</s>LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is relief, seeing my family in Corozal for the first time, hearing them tell me they're OK.</s>SANTIAGO: That's the relief I found in this small town, but it's far from the relief needed on this island.</s>CABRERA: I want to bring in Leyla Santiago in San Juan, Puerto Rico. And, Leyla, what a beautiful reunion we just saw there with your family. Tell me, how is your family holding up?</s>SANTIAGO: Well, Ana, I actually haven't been able to communicate with them since I left that part because communication still very much an issue. The island only has, as you mentioned, 30 percent of the communication infrastructure restored. So still a hard -- or just a challenge to reach family members. After I left, that was it. I haven't been able to call them, cannot reach them still to this point. But I'll tell you what I did see today that was very heart warming. I, just like Anderson, saw quite a bit of people, Puerto Ricans helping Puerto Ricans. I watched as aid was distributed, and it wasn't, in any way, from the government.</s>SANTIAGO (voice-over): She may need a walker and has an extra load, but the walk home is the easy part for Aracelis Negron. The 62-year- old was first in line for help when this package arrived in Toa Baja.</s>SANTIAGO (on camera): She says she doesn't know what's in the box yet, but she knows that it's a blessing. A blessing but it's not from the federal government.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You just got to make sure that people get the food in their hand.</s>SANTIAGO (voice-over): Rather a super star who calls Puerto Rico home. Musician Daddy Yankee and a food bank. Do you feel the government's doing enough?</s>DADDY YANKEE, MUSICIAN: No, I don't think so. I don't think so. And that's real. You know, there's no time to play politics right now. This is a chaos. We are struggling right now.</s>SANTIAGO (voice-over): Struggling is exactly how Edwin de Jesus describes it.</s>SANTIAGO (on camera): When Hurricane Maria whipped through town, he said he was able to get one pant, two shirts, and the radio he's got right now. He's also one of the lucky ones to receive a box, each with a week's worth of food. The food bank says this load from private donors is enough for 4,000 families.</s>SANTIAGO (on camera): He says this is good because, at least, the help is arriving now. Beyond this, the only other help residents tell us they've seen here, 10 days after Maria struck he --</s>SANTIAGO (on camera): She says some water has arrived here as aid, but that's it. She hasn't seen anything else. That's why she was first in line to get these boxes. For many, these boxes bring home a bit of hope. Aracelis doesn't understand English, so I'm going to read to her what this says. It said, better days are coming. Be brave and stay strong.</s>SANTIAGO (on camera): And she adds, and have faith. Faith that more help like these will get here soon.</s>SANTIAGO: And, again, Ana, all of that coming from private donations. Puerto Ricans going out into communities and delivering them themselves. I did see some of the members of the National Guard out there. They were from the Puerto Rican National Guard. And, again, I was told water had been distributed. But none of that, none of that aid that you saw there, came from the government. So it's easy to understand why so many seemed a little shocked, seem a little frustrated, when they are told that they expect everything to be handed to them.</s>CABRERA: Leyla Santiago, thank you for that report. Good to see how people are coming together there, helping each other, doing the best they can. President Trump tweeting again about Puerto Rico just a short time ago, writing, I will be in Puerto Rico on Tuesday to further ensure we will continue doing everything possible to assist and support the people in their time of great need. Now, the first lady, we are learning, will accompany the President on that trip. CNN's Ryan Nobles is near the Trump golf resort in New Jersey where the first family is spending this week. And, Ryan, President Trump has been tweeting a lot today, but there was a period for about six hours or so when he didn't post anything. Do we know what he was doing during that time?</s>RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: No, we don't, Ana. And you're right, the President was busy today but those of us in the press corps that are here with the express purpose of making sure that what we -- we know what he's up to today, we never laid eyes on the President. Or we were never given access to him at all today. But we did read the 18 different tweets that he sent out about Puerto Rico. And you're right, there was a six-hour period where he stopped sending out those tweets. It was a little after 8:00 and then a little after 2:00 before he started tweeting again. Now, we know in the 2:00 hour that he spent some time on the phone with five different leaders from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, getting a sense of exactly what is going on in that region. Now, we expressly asked, did the President golf today? He was at his private golf resort for the third consecutive weekend. His aides could not tell us one way or another if that's how the President spent his day. So all we know for sure was that he spent some of his time tweeting about the situation in Puerto Rico, Ana.</s>CABRERA: And, Ryan, I understand Vice President Mike Pence just commented on the President's assessment of the disaster. What did he say?</s>NOBLES: That's right. Vice President Mike Pence was touring FEMA headquarters today. He did a local interview with a station out of Orland, Florida, and he backed up the President and, specifically, his criticism of the Mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz. And this is what Pence had to say. He said, quote, well, it is frustrating, I expect, to millions of Americans to hear rhetoric coming out from some in Puerto Rico, particularly the Mayor of San Juan, instead of focusing on results. Our joint field operation is at -- beside of a convention center in San Juan has more than 1,000 personnel working out off a football field environment. The Mayor of San Juan has only visited our joint field operation just once. And the Vice President also saying that he will visit the U.S. Virgin Islands sometime next week. So the White House busy defending its response to the situation in Puerto Rico, Ana.</s>CABRERA: All right. Ryan Nobles for us. Thank you. Coming up, Puerto Rico crying for help. Why is President Trump praising his response to the disaster while residents there are suffering?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It hurts.</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You can't even believe what's happening here. I mean, she's -- there's no power. There's no water. She's a diabetic. She doesn't have insulin. She has an infection that could threaten her life. No ambulance will take her to the hospital. That's what's happening here.</s>COOPER: A lot of people can't even bring their cars here. They're just waiting in line in person with as many gas cans as they can. But this line, there are dozens of people, and it stretches all the way down here. And a lot of people here have been waiting for hours as well.</s>IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is their improvised method for trying to reach the outside world. We just spoke with a couple who had crossed this way and then walked two hours to the nearest supermarket to try to get bread and food and rice for their children and then had to walk two hours back.