From the September 12 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show:
Sean Hannity defends Trump administration response to Maria in Puerto Rico because “billions and billions of dollars” were spent
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
SEAN HANNITY (HOST): If you look at what happened though -- I mean, the loss of life was so sad in Puerto Rico, they had their entire electrical grid that was barely working to begin with, totally fail. It was an across the board failure. And within 60 days they had 50 percent power for people, and within 90 days about 70 percent of power for people, and then now it's 100 percent. Customers -- it's the same with their water systems, they were inoperable and literally water service went to 70 percent in 30 days, 96 percent in 60 days. Considering the infrastructure was old and outdated and not of the best quality -- but just to give you an example of how does America react after such an incident like this, well if you look at the dollars, and this was released back in August, the amount of money that had been spent in the year since the hurricanes hit Puerto Rico -- $1.39 billion, federal grants, were approved for nearly 500,000 home owners and renters. 1.8 billion in low interest disaster loans from U.S. Small Business Administration for nearly 52 thousand businesses. 21 million in claims by the national flood insurance program. 7.9 million for survivors who lost work due to the hurricanes and then you have 100 million dollars for 7,000 households in the transitional sheltering assistance program, on top of that $20 billion obligated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for disaster related community development block grants to Puerto Rico. 3.4 billion in FEMA public assistance funding obligated. 75 -- 79 million for increased enforcement of a stronger building code. 213 million in community disaster loans -- I can go on from here but I think you get the point. And the increases in stockpiles of food and water around the island -- they've added hundred of generators, literally millions and millions of liters of water and millions of meals so that they're there and available in case, of course they're right up there in Hurricane Alley.
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I've watched the politicizing -- well look at Puerto Rico! And I'm like, I just read you all the billions and billions of dollars that we spent, the aid that we -- that was given, the infrastructure that was some of the poorest in, not the country but the world even, and all of that has been re-built and its been only a years time. It's hard to build infrastructure in a year where 99 percent of people are getting the power that they need, when everybody did not have power.
Previously:
Cable news devoted scant coverage to the increased Puerto Rican death toll
In 2018, Sunday shows have covered Hurricane Maria’s impact on Puerto Rico for only 20 seconds
Sean Hannity's Hurricane Harvey “expert” is a climate denier