President Donald Trump was slammed again by Puerto Rico leaders Monday for rejecting the idea of statehood for the island.
In an interview with Geraldo Rivera, Trump said he was an "absolute no" when asked about statehood for the island, currently a U.S. commonwealth.
"With the mayor of San Juan as bad as she is ... Puerto Rico shouldn't be talking about statehood until they get some people that really know what they're doing," Trump said, according to a Toronto Star transcript.
Trump called San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, who has been outspoken in criticizing the Trump administration for its handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, "that woman" and "incompetent."
"Locally, they did a very, very poor job," Trump said, according to the Star. Trump also incorrectly claimed the island "had no electric ... people didn't have electric on the island" before the hurricane.
Trump again falsely implied the official death toll of 2,975, based on a George Washington University study and accepted by Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott and GOP gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis, was inflated for political reasons.
"Wait a minute, you went from 16 to 64," Trump said. "We did a great job, and then you went from 64 to 3,000? How did that happen? And they couldn't explain it."
Scott, running for U.S. Senate, has backed statehood for the island. Scott's position is supported by Puerto Rico's non-voting delegate to Congress, Resident Commissioner Jenniffer Gonzalez, a Republican.
"Equality (for) Puerto Ricans shouldn't be held up by one bad mayor who's leaving office in 2020 and do not represent the people who voted twice for statehood," Gonzalez said in a tweet.
She also noted 61 percent of island voters backed statehood in a referendum in 2012 and 97 percent in 2017, though the latter vote was boycotted by statehood opponents.
"Equality and statehood are much bigger than any lousy and temporary politician," Gonzalez said. "Equality transcends."
In a statement, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosello called Trump's statement "unfortunate."
"The president said he is not in favor of statehood for the people of Puerto Rico based on a personal feud with a local mayor," Rosello said. "This is an insensitive, disrespectful comment to over 3 million Americans who live in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico."
Equality for the U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico, he said, "is the biggest civil rights issue in the United States."
"Americans in the island cannot vote for their president and do not have voting representation in Congress yet are subject to federal laws," Rosello said. "This undemocratic relationship has gone on for over 100 years."
The governor added that Trump said that the results of the referendum votes should be considered by Congress and the GOP 2016 platform "explicitly recognized Puerto Rico's 2012 status referendum and supported statehood."
Any changes to the island's status would need congressional approval.
