Elizabeth Warren stands behind Alex Cora’s decision to skip White House event
"It is bad over there. And I think he's exactly right."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren says she “admires” the decision by Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora to not attend the World Series-winning team’s White House ceremony this week.
A TMZ reporter caught up with the Massachusetts senator Tuesday on Capitol Hill to ask about the news from her local MLB team’s coach.
Cora, a Puerto Rico native, announced Sunday that he — along with a number of other players — would skip the White House event Thursday, citing President Donald Trump’s treatment of the U.S. territory in the wake of Hurricane Maria. The Caguas native told a Puerto Rican newspaper that he didn’t “feel comfortable celebrating in the White House,” while some residents of his home island continue to lack basic necessities more than 18 months after the Category 5 hurricane.
Warren says Cora is right — both about Puerto Rico and in his decision to skip the White House visit.
“It is bad over there,” she told TMZ in the impromptu hallway interview. “And I think he’s exactly right. He did this in a clear and respectful manner, but he said, ‘I can’t go and show up for a photo op with someone who’s been withholding funds from Puerto Rico.’ It’s just not right.”
According to The Washington Post, nearly $41 billion in federal funds has been allocated for Puerto Rico’s recovery, but only $11.2 billion has been spent. Warren has criticized the Trump administration’s “disrespectful” response, pointing to studies that found the federal government’s reaction to Hurricane Maria was slower and less generous compared to relief efforts in the wake of hurricanes that hit the U.S. mainland.
“Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens who have suffered one hard blow after another, first from Wall Street and then with two back-to-back hurricanes,” she said Tuesday. “And the money that has already been allocated to Puerto Rico has not actually been given to them, much of it for the purposes of being able to rebuild the island. There’s a lot of suffering going on down there, and it’s just not right.”
Warren has been a critic of the federal government’s treatment of Puerto Rico dating back to before Hurricanes Irma or Maria — or the Trump administration — occurred.
The Bay State Democrat blames the austerity-focused handling of Puerto Rico’s debt crisis, which emphasized paying back Wall Street creditors over funding the local government, for hobbling the island’s economy and infrastructure ahead of the two storms. She recently reintroduced legislation to restructure Puerto Rico’s debt relief plan so that it can “recover with dignity.”
According to estimates by the Puerto Rican government, Hurricane Maria killed 2,975 people, making it one of the deadliest disasters in American history.
Last summer, Cora denounced Trump’s attempts to downplay the hurricane’s death toll. Warren said Tuesday that she agreed with the TMZ reporter’s suggestion that the Red Sox manager’s decision this week was about more than sports.
“I admire what he’s doing,” she said.
