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As hurricane florence barrels towards the eastern seaboard president trump says we will handle it. fema and first responders are fully prepared according to the president while reminding all of us what he calls an a plus response to last year's hurricane. yesterday the president went even further and called puerto rico, quote, an incredible unsung success. this is not most people's idea of an incredible success. 2,975 deaths tied to maria, electricity still not 100% restored on puerto rico as of mid august. the government it says now says more than half of the fema workers sent into the field ...

Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died and you look at what happened here with really a storm that was just totally overbearing. nobody's ever seen anything like this. and what is your -- what is your death count as of this moment? 17. >> 16 certified. >> 16 people certified. 16 people versus in the thousands. >> well, now the government admits it is in the thousands. 2,975 is the official death toll in puerto rico. that's more than the 1,833 people killed in the katrina aftermath and just two fewer than the number of people killed in the 9/11 terror attack 17 years ago today. ...

Tremendo tremendous. i think puerto rico was an incredible unsung success. >> but take a look at the numbers, an unsung success, over 3,000 people over the years have died as a result of this hurricane maria in puerto rico. the original toll they thought was about 64, now it's 2,975. and the president says this was an incredible unsung success. >> maybe he's talking about his ability to toss paper towels. he seems to be pretty good at that. but in terms of protecting americans, it's a disaster. it's a disaster for puerto rico, what happened there. the fema did not do its job, they were not pre...

So says the government's own accountability report that came out just last week, yet the president still says otherwise. good morning, gentlemen. david, to you, it's one thing not to admit a mistake. it is another thing to call the biggest bar on this graphic -- we'll bring it up in a moment -- that 2,975 deaths an incredible success. is this just spin and bluster or something more? >> this is the president as he does sometimes just creating an entirely alternate universe where he believes he has done great and deserves a pat on the back and just makes no acknowledgment of reality. of course, ...

Death toll. >> you saying it would have been even worse which is understandable. still, 2,975 people died in puerto rico. are you calling it an unsung success? >> what i'm saying is that there was a response and that we did learn that because of our condition as a territory, we do have -- this is something that was in place not one year ago but has been happening for decades whereby puerto rico because of our condition we don't get the same health care funds. we don't get the same treatment as other u.s. citizens so our electric grid was fragile compared to what probably is in place right now ...