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President's obsession. >> i think puerto rico was incredibly successful. texas, we have been given a-pluses for. florida, we've been given a-pluses for. i think in a certain way, the best job we did was puerto rico. >> that was monday, with florence still a few days away. and it didn't stop. thursday, as florence began to hit, the tweet disputing the hurricane maria death toll and any suggestion that the federal response was not perfect. as florence raged, evening tweets in the 6:00 hour, 8:00 hour and 10:00 hour about maria. when it comes to this president, ego trumps empathy. >> the presiden...

3,000, roughly at this point, the estimate is, americans died. these are americans. and that ends up not being where the focus is. puerto rico, which is, you know, a tiny island, has continued to get battered by storms. since then, we are approaching the one year. and as is often the case with donald trump, the notes that he is sounding are not empathetic. and i understand that they feel as if they take too much incoming, they feel as if they get too many attacks. you have to know if you are talking about a storm where that many people died, it is not going to -- people are not going to grade ...

The biggest ones to ever hit our country. residents in the path of these devastating storms should comply with all evacuation orders and other emergency instructions. protection of life is the absolute highest priority, and that's what we're doing. it's called protection of life. so god bless everybody and be careful. >> accolades. just couldn't resist giving himself a pat on the back in advance, okay? only one day after he praises his administration's response to hurricane maria in puerto rico, where an estimated 2,975 american citizens died. >> i think that puerto rico was an incredible unsu...

President started to talk about hurricane maria, the deadly storm that struck puerto rico last september. and it all went very, very wrong. >> i think puerto rico was incredibly successful. puerto rico was actually our toughest one of all because it's an island, so you can't truck things onto it. everything's by boat. i actually think -- and the governor's been very nice. if you ask the governor, he'll tell you what a great job. i think probably the hardest one we had by far was puerto rico because of the island nature. and i actually think it was one of the best jobs that's ever been done wit...

He doesn't understand that this isn't about him and about his ego. this is about the inability of his administration that he directs to ensure that the appropriate help got to puerto rico in time. so, you know, the president is all about political posturing. it's all about how good he's going to look. >> joining us from "the new york times," chief white house correspondent peter baker. here at the table, republican strategist rick wilson. elise jordan, a former aide in the george w. bush white house and state department. now co-host of the podcast "words matter." "washington post" columnist an...