President Donald Trump on Thursday rejected the conclusion that nearly 3,000 died in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria.
Trump argued that the number was wrong and called it a plot by Democrats to make him look bad. According to reports, Trump made the claim without any supporting evidence.
As Hurricane Florence approached the Carolinas, the president picked a fresh fight over the administration’s response in Puerto Rico. He took to Twitter Thursday morning:
The estimate of nearly 3,000 dead in the six months after Maria devastated the island in September 2017 and knocked out the entire electrical grid was made by researchers with the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.
The study says the original estimates were so low because doctors on the island had not been trained to properly classify deaths after a natural disaster.
The elderly and impoverished were hardest hit by the hurricane.