HUD IG Report Shows Trump Admin Blocked Disaster Aid to Puerto Rico And Obstructed Investigation

[Belk]

I am, that is why I asked a question in relationship to the topic. Thanks for asking

So you don't know the two topics are completely separate? OK. These two topics are completely separate. The aid that was found in a warehouse has nothing to do with the Trump admins attempts to block aid and cover up investigations. Does that clear it up for you?

 

[hislegacy]

So you don't know the two topics are completely separate? OK. These two topics are completely separate. The aid that was found in a warehouse has nothing to do with the Trump admins attempts to block aid and cover up investigations. Does that clear it up for you?

No they are not - the investigation is:

That is the screen image from the link - I cannot open it because it is behind a paywall.

They are investigating "hurdles" the administration supposedly erected after Irma and Maria.

What I am speaking of is the supplies the Democratic Government in Puerto Rico stored and never gave to it's hurting citizens until they were found in a warehouse.

We are BOTH speaking of supplies for hurricane victims - same subject.

I just happen to remember this being spoken of while it was happening and the embarrassment the Governor went through after accusing the President of racism and not caring about her citizens, not sending supplies all the time they were sitting in warehouses.

A hidden warehouse in Puerto Rico was discovered containing massive amounts of disaster relief aid sent by the United States in between 2017-2018 as part of the effort to assist the victims of Hurricane Maria.

The survival aid, which included water and medicine, was hidden and unused for nearly two years to make President Trump look bad, until recent earthquakes in Puerto Rico prompted investigators to look into structural damages.
​

To quote the mayor:

“The President doesn’t care,” Mayor Cruz said in April 2019. “He has proven time and time again that he’s in this to look good. You know, he thinks this is about him. He never got it. When I pleaded and I asked him for help, he never got that this was about saving lives.”
​

She had received the supplies needed - they were sitting unused when she stated this.

How one can think the topics are unrelated is beyond common sense IMHO

 

[hislegacy]

On top of that - the source is WAPO

Media Bias Fact Check Downgrades the Washington Post - Media Bias Fact Check

 

[Landon Caeli]

I’m sure that was a joke. No one is so stupid that they don’t know that Puerto Rico is part of the US...

To be fair, I don't know everything about Canada.

 

[essentialsaltes]

On top of that - the source is WAPO

Media Bias Fact Check Downgrades the Washington Post - Media Bias Fact Check

On top of that - the source of the fact check is Media Bias Fact Check

Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC) is a website founded in 2015 by editor Dave Van Zandt. The website has been described as an amateur effort to rate news media sources based on factual accuracy and political bias

 

[essentialsaltes]

On top of that, the source is the IG report, linked in the OP.

 

[hislegacy]

On top of that, the source is the IG report, linked in the OP.

It is behind a paywall.

 

[essentialsaltes]

It is behind a paywall.

Et voilà!

Review of HUD’s Disbursement of Grant Funds Appropriated for Disaster Recovery and Mitigation Activities in Puerto Rico | Office of Inspector General, Department of Housing and Urban Development

 

[hislegacy]

Et voilà!

Review of HUD’s Disbursement of Grant Funds Appropriated for Disaster Recovery and Mitigation Activities in Puerto Rico | Office of Inspector General, Department of Housing and Urban Development

Thanks - some snips that I think are important:

From the finalized report:

As we describe in Chapter 7, the OIG did not find evidence that undue influence or other concerns regarding the improper handling of grant funds intended for Puerto Rico caused Patenaude to resign. In her OIG interview, Patenaude said she resigned for personal reasons and denied that any specific directions from former Secretary Carson or any other Executive Branch official regarding Puerto Rico had anything to do with her resignation. None of the current or former HUD officials the OIG interviewed as part of this review gave evidence contradicting Patenaude’s assertion that she did not resign because of delay in making disaster-relief funds available to Puerto Rico.
​

Besides a picture of the Federal Government's right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing (standards for the feds), I don't see much else.

 

[Belk]

No they are not - the investigation is:

View attachment 298108

That is the screen image from the link - I cannot open it because it is behind a paywall.

They are investigating "hurdles" the administration supposedly erected after Irma and Maria.

What I am speaking of is the supplies the Democratic Government in Puerto Rico stored and never gave to it's hurting citizens until they were found in a warehouse.

We are BOTH speaking of supplies for hurricane victims - same subject.

I just happen to remember this being spoken of while it was happening and the embarrassment the Governor went through after accusing the President of racism and not caring about her citizens, not sending supplies all the time they were sitting in warehouses.

A hidden warehouse in Puerto Rico was discovered containing massive amounts of disaster relief aid sent by the United States in between 2017-2018 as part of the effort to assist the victims of Hurricane Maria.

The survival aid, which included water and medicine, was hidden and unused for nearly two years to make President Trump look bad, until recent earthquakes in Puerto Rico prompted investigators to look into structural damages.
​

To quote the mayor:

“The President doesn’t care,” Mayor Cruz said in April 2019. “He has proven time and time again that he’s in this to look good. You know, he thinks this is about him. He never got it. When I pleaded and I asked him for help, he never got that this was about saving lives.”
​

She had received the supplies needed - they were sitting unused when she stated this.

How one can think the topics are unrelated is beyond common sense IMHO

Very well. We will see if you are consistent next time someone calls up an ancillary topic in other areas.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Thanks - some snips that I think are important:

Who is Patenaude? Why is this important?

 

[Lukaris]

On top of that - the source of the fact check is Media Bias Fact Check

Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC) is a website founded in 2015 by editor Dave Van Zandt. The website has been described as an amateur effort to rate news media sources based on factual accuracy and political bias

News sources immediately found on the internet seem politically approved for controlled google filtration. When I was in high school in the early 1980s, the library would have an index of periodicals. A student could find a range from the radical, leftist Nation magazine to the conservative & reasonable: National Review with the mainstream in between. The media has shifted left; former respected, conservative sources like National Review & Commentary, unless a person is familiar with, are obscure in internet research. Any new conservative media is automatically labeled far right conspiracy by left wing media establishments.

 

[hislegacy]

Who is Patenaude? Why is this important?

It is part of the accusations being made - don't you read your own links?

 

[hislegacy]

Very well. We will see if you are consistent next time someone calls up an ancillary topic in other areas.

Why am I that important to you? Is what I say and do that influential? Really now, how about just addressing the topic and not the poster - it would be a refreshing change.

 

[Belk]

Spare is your

Why am I that important to you? Is what I say and do that influential? Really now, how about just addressing the topic and not the poster - it would be a refreshing change.

Spare us the bunk where you try to disengage your responses from being personal.

 

[Clare73]

LINK

The Trump administration put up bureaucratic obstacles that stalled approximately $20 billion in hurricane relief for Puerto Rico and then obstructed an investigation into the holdup, according to an inspector general report obtained by The Washington Post.

Congress requested the investigation into the delays to recovery aid for Puerto Rico after Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 left residents of the U.S. territory without power and clean water for months. But, the report said, former Housing and Urban Development secretary Ben Carson and another former HUD official declined to be interviewed by investigators during the course of the examination that began in 2019.

The OMB required HUD’s notice of grant funds to go through an interagency review process before approval, preventing HUD from publishing its draft notice of funding by its target date. The OMB had never before required such a review process for a notice allocating disaster-recovery funds

At one point, [HUD official] Montgomery told [OMB DIrector] Vought that the White House’s actions were tantamount to holding disaster-relief funds “hostage,” the report said.

But the inspector general said given the lack of cooperation, investigators were unable to determine why the extra layer of review was required.

Trump had also told then-White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and then-OMB Director Mick Mulvaney that he did not want a single dollar going to Puerto Rico, and instead, he wanted more of the money to go to Texas and Florida.

Are you familiar with the level of corruption in their government? Precious little, if any, went to aid.

 

[essentialsaltes]

It is part of the accusations being made - don't you read your own links?

I wrote the OP, I know what accusations I'm making. (And WaPo as well.)

 

[Lukaris]

The report mentions the impact of the government shutdown from 12/22/18 to 1/25/19 and resulting red tape between HUD & OMB ( chapter 4). That particular shutdown was thanks to Democrat red tape over funding for the border wall ( the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean is building a border wall because it needs to survive: Dominican Republic announces plans for Haiti border fence. Wall to be built between DR and Haiti | New York Carib News

Then there is the whitefish controversy with the Puerto Rican power grid ( there seems to be some scratching to link Trump on this). Whitefish is not in the IG report: Whitefish Energy - Wikipedia

 

[essentialsaltes]

The report mentions the impact of the government shutdown from 12/22/18 to 1/25/19 and resulting red tape between HUD & OMB ( chapter 4). That particular shutdown was thanks to Democrat red tape

"If we don't get what we want ... I will shut down the government. And I am proud to shut down the government for border security.... I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. I'm not going to blame you for it."

 

[Lukaris]

"If we don't get what we want ... I will shut down the government. And I am proud to shut down the government for border security.... I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. I'm not going to blame you for it."

So? Now we have a border crisis going on and he will be blamed for that even though what he mentioned as reasons for building the wall are the same for the Dominican Republic.

Border Crisis -- Joe Biden’s Malarkey Maneuver | National Review

Trump took the heat for their cheap intransigence over a few measly less than $6 billion dollars for border security. The problems in Puerto Rico and the current border situation are on them because they perpetuate crisis.

Trump also looked to the future to revive the pharmaceutical industry in Puerto Rico: The island that can save America