Rick Santorum Blames The ‘Country Of Puerto Rico’ For Its ‘Woefully Deficient’ Response To Maria

It has long been speculated that one of the reasons the Trump administration’s response to Hurricane Maria was severely lacking was that President Donald Trump didn’t see Puerto Rico as part of this country. Whether that’s the case or not, one of Trump’s loyal media supporter helped feed that narrative with a Freudian slip.

During a CNN panel discussion on Trump’s insane claim that the administration’s response to Maria was an “unsung success” and “one of the best jobs” ever, CNN political commentator and former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said that while the federal government deserved some blame for the 3,000 deaths from the storm, Puerto Rico needs to share in the responsibility.

“The federal response is an important component of it, but as we all know, and as [CNN analyst] Max [Boot] knows, the primary responsibility, the people who are most responsible for that response is not FEMA,” Santorum declared. “FEMA is not a huge operation that can do all things.”

He continued, “It is a thing that supplements state and local, in this case, the country — the country of Puerto Rico, their response. And of course, that was woefully deficient. And in the errors made by FEMA and the staff was, they didn’t have enough to compensate for the situation — the bad situation in Puerto Rico prior to it, particularly the electric grid.”

Yep, that’s right. He said “the country of Puerto Rico.” Just to reiterate, Puerto Rico is an American territory — the people living their are American citizens.

Anyway, Santorum would conclude his thought by saying FEMA should shoulder some blame but it wasn’t fair to place it all on the federal government.

Watch the clip above, via CNN.