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Scarborough to Trump: 'Poor leadership playing golf as Americans die’

Sunday, 01 October 2017 7:10 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 01 October 2017 11:30 AM ]

US President Donald Trump speaks to the media prior to boarding Marine One and departing from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, September 29, 2017, as travels to spend the weekend at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey. (Photo by AFP)

Former Republican Congressman and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough has denounced US President Donald Trump’s verbal assault on the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, after she begged for help in handling the crisis and devastation caused by Hurricane Maria.

Scarborough, a former Republican lawmaker from Florida, said on Saturday night the president was wrong to attack Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz for "poor leadership" amid hurricane recovery efforts in Puerto Rico, which is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeast Caribbean Sea.

"Poor leadership would be hiding at a country club golfing while fellow Americans are suffering and dying," Scarborough said. "She's not doing that. You are."

Poor leadership would be hiding at a country club golfing while fellow Americans are suffering and dying. She's not doing that. You are. https://t.co/N4wJg5nrGQ
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) September 30, 2017

Scarborough also reposted tweets of his fellow "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski, saying that Trump is "not fit" to be president.

In a series of early-morning tweets on Saturday, Trump attacked Cruz after she criticized the government in Washington, DC, for its delayed response to the hurricane-ravaged Caribbean island.

“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,” Trump tweeted.

“They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job,” he added.

Trump's tweets were apparently in response to criticism from the mayor the day before.

"We are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency and the bureaucracy," Cruz said at a Friday news conference.

"So I am done being polite. I am done being politically correct. I am mad as hell,” she stated.

Several Democratic lawmakers on Saturday condemned Trump for targeting the mayor while he was playing golf at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

At least 16 people lost their lives in Puerto Rico as of Friday and the death toll was expected to climb as recovery efforts continued.

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