for the conditions that affect us all. imagine what we can do for you. welcome to inside politics. i'm jon king. puerto rico's governor at the white house. he's been careful not to criticize president trump, but he's at the white house with an urgent appeal. just 22% of the island's electrical grid is up and running after maria hit. >> recognizing that we're in this together. u.s. citizens in texas, in florida, u.s. citizens in puerto rico, the u.s. virgin islands, we need equal treatment. >> plus, votes this hour in the is that the they lous for the president's tax cut. but u don't expect a vote on the

new health care bill. the president pushed for it, praised it, then said he's against it. >> when you have conflict legislation, can there be misunderstanding by those involved? yes, there can be. >> but we have to recognize that different presidents have different governing skills. >> and a debate about how the president deals with gold star families. critical unanswered questions about an ambush in africa that left four u.s. soldiers dead. >> seems like they were ambushed by a larger group so i know secretary mattis and others are going to be looking into the details of this and how the approvals process were made, but there are questions about what was going on. >> we begin the hour with a remarkable rebuke of the current republican president by the last. george w. bush moments ago last hour giving a rare speech in new york and in it, the 43rd president never mentioned his name, but went bullet point by

bullet point, rebutting donald trump on issue after issue, including the foundation of the trump presidency. mr. trump's promise to turn inward and put america first. >> we should not be blind to the economic and social dislocations caused by globalization. people are hurting. they're angry. and they're frustrated. we must help them, but we cannot wish globalization away. anymore than we could wish away theory sullivagriculture or indl revolution. one strength of free societies is their ability to adapt to economic and social disruptions and that should be our goal. >> with us to share their report ing, margot from bloomberg. jeff, michael warren of "the weekly standard" and -- a remarkable speech. remember, george bush doesn't speak in public often.

the former republican president deciding i'm told after months of think iing ant this, to delir a very lengthy speech. doesn't mention donald trump. listen here. donald trump, you think about how he came to power, a new domestic nationalism. the president says be careful. >> we've seen our discourse degraded by casual cruelty. at times, it could seem like the forces pulli ining us apart are stronger than the forces binding us together. argument turns to animosity. too often, we judge other groups by their worst examples. while judging ourselves by our best intentions. forgetting the image of god we should see in each other. we've seen nationalism distorted in the nativism. >> remarkable to hear from him any way.

it's not hidden. he doesn't use donald trump's name, but it's not hidden. the last republican president is trying to make at a time his party is going through an internal tug of war about ha to do about the current president. >> no question. i think his silence make these remarks all the more louder and profound today and again, as you said, he is doing this for a reason. he has thought a lot about it. he has watched john mccain. he's watched other leaders step up and he did come to the decision that he wanted to add his voice into that. i think that is a pretty extraordinary when you think about that. but i was struck by the white supremacy line call iing it blasphemy. this is not in the news at the moment. he's been think iing about this. and it, it just strikes me as i was watching him speak, how far this republican party has come from the compassionate conservatism he ran on and served with in texas. incredibly interesting speech. >> you just made that point.

blasphemy and white nationalism. the president of the united states criticized by his tone and specifics of his remarks seeming to draw a moral equivalelens in charlottesville. listen to the former president on that subject. >> our identity as a nation unlike many others, is not determined by geography or ethnicity. by soil or blood. we become the heirs of martin luther king jr. by recognizing one another not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. this means that people of every race, religion, ethnicity, can be fully and equally american. it means that bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the american creed. >> right. >> this is an internal debate

that's going on among conservatives and republicans. it's this question of you know, nationalism versus patriotism or you know, is america a cree dahl nation or a nation of the people who live here. and the truth is, probably somewhere in the middle. but president bush represents a view you heard him say it. the language is is religious in nature. blasphemy. this is a viewpoint he shares i think with a number of republicans and he's looking at this as an opportunity to say, look, there's a different viewpoint of what it means to be american. and what it means for republicans and for conservatives to be an american. let me give voice to that. something other republicans have been saying. he has a much loud r voice. >> more optimistic than he thinks he's hear frg the current president. to your point, there are a lot of presidents who share his views. they have decided to only on limited occasion speak out. most hoping to bite their tongue, hoping he is not here

long, that he's not future of their party. they mute it. they don't want to deal with the story, brit bart. >> but they can get something of it. >> but some have been have begun to speak out. we've seen it with john mccain. with bob corker. this looks like the president bush say iing at this moment in time that it's important for him to step in and sort of join that chorus as well and i think he represents a republican party that is different than the way the republican party is trying today and he embodies the lischment for good and bad. too much of the bush and clinton dynas dynasty, but the bush family has done a tremendous amount of public service and he believes in the value of establi establishmentarianism and the bullwork of everything he and his family sought to build up legacy wise. to look at it in the cop text of

this, he has had more of a bipartisan outreach since he left office. he and president obama have found common ground and we see president obama campaigning now in a couple of key races on behalf of democrats to see former presidents come out and try to box the sitting president in. even in a careful way is is a phenomenal and noteworthy turn of events. >> to use your words, box the current president is. i think they're also trying to wake up, to michael's point, trying to wake up the other people. stand up and fight it. have the argument. the debate. again, this, the former president i was reaching out to some of his people as i was listening to the speech. he's thought about this for a long time. he's reluctant to get involved. he speaks to his father frequently. also to the former president. he speaks to his father and the key players in the george w. bush administration, most of which are appalled.

a also to the global leaders in power like the chancellor. on their reactions to president trump. have you heard president trump since the election despite everything his own intelligence chiefs tell him about the threat of russian sben feerinterfins s something like the former president just said? we don't have the sound. i'm going to read you that america has experienced a sustained attempt by a hostile power to feed and exploit our country's division the russia government has made a project of turning americans against each other. foreign aggression should never been down played or tolerated. it's clear case with case xwins at home. >> that is striking. president trump has not said anything close to that. he said it could have been russia. it could have been someone else. he's never spoken out as clearly

as this. i was struck by so many things in president bush's speech, but that's one. that is giving legitimacy to what the current president calls a hock. to anyone out there who may think this russia investigation is not worthy. so i think michael's right about you know, this is a chance to wake up some republicans perhaps. you could almost hear mrs. barbara bush in there as well as his brother. is it going to be a ground swell? i doubt it. but it's incredibly striking. >> the former president also talked about, he's watching this play out. he watched the beginning of the social media age when he was president of the united states. now, he sees what's happening under president trump. george w. bush wrote a paper talking about how as we rethink what we should have as a

democracy, think about young people and role models. >> and our young people need positive role models. bullying and prejudice in our public life sets a national tone. provides permission for cruelty and bigotry and compromises the moral education of children. the only way to pass along civic values is to first live up to them. >> think about that. think about that. some of the trump presidency is like a blur some days. looking at his twitter fe eter decide which we want to pay attention to. some are costic. retweets are highly critical of people. provides permission for cruelty and bigotry. compromises the moral education of children. the only way to pass along civic values is to first live up to them. >> it's striking. but the other side of this is that we talk ed about sorlt of waking up that side of the republican party that george w.

bush represents. this could be a shot in the arm for those forces within the party that were opposed to bush that gave the trump presidency its energy and they hear language like that and i think they think well, that's going back to the time when republicans didn't fight back against all these liberals and all the bad forces within our society, so i think in a way to get away from just the uplifting language of this former president, this could help stoke the fires in this piece of a war that continues from the 2016 primary. >> no question. bob corker spoke out. there was narrowly an echo. there was crickets. silence. >> we had a sit-down with a senator who has been one of those trump krcritics. we asked about the corker comments. he says i agree. he's right with those sentiments. i share those concerns. a lot of us do and it's fascinating how he while refusing to embrace trump and

still being critic of him, he sees his challenge as a test of whether this trump fueled part of the party will prevail. the president making the speech. jeff will test that point at the ballot box. quick break. the it's a busy day. the governor of puerto rico is at the white house. we may hear from the president on that subject moments away. also, tough questions for the white house about how the four americans were called in niger. what was the intelligence failure and how the president relates to gold star families. be right back. a dvt in my leg. i had to learn all i could to help protect myself. my doctor and i choose xarelto® xarelto®... to help keep me protected. xarelto® is a latest-generation blood thinner... ...that's proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt

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administration is under pressure to answer questions about the ambush on u.s. troops niger that left to the deaths of four soldiers. what happened? why were the american soldiers there? why was one left behind? three officials telling cnn that mattis mayed by the lack of information he is getting. senator john mccain says the administration is not being forthcoming. he told reporters, quote, that's why we're called the senate armed services question. we deserve to have all the information. plus, as this plays out, as those questions remain unanswered, president trump getting what you might call a fact check on his claim that he's been more attentive to the pred se sores when it comes to the families of the fallen. >> mrs. murphy, did you hear from the white house? have you heard from the white house? >> no, i haven't. i haven't, but it's okay. it doesn't matter. if i hear from the white house or not because it's not really about, like i said, a call or a letter. i just want people to remember my son, specialist murphy and

all the other gold star moms. >> god bless those families. it was just days ago, the president claimed he's more attentive to this task than his pred se sores were. >> i write letters and also call. now, sometimes, if you had a tragic event, it's difficult to be able to do that, but i have called, i believe everybody, but certainly i'll use the word virtually everybody. >> this has become the conversation in washington. the political conversation because of things the president said that don't hold up to the facts about his predecessors, but the other questions are about what happened. these are special operations forces. we're not supposed to know some of this. some is supposed dob kept private, but just now, senator john mccain telling reporters he may require a subpoena on niger if he doesn't get answers from

the pentagon but maybe the public doesn't get to know all the detail shlgs but they deserve basic details. four americans were killed in dapg rouse operation. one soldier, his body was left behind for two days. if the senate armed services committee chairman can't get basic information and he'll get information that none of us should see, we have a problem here. >> i think that's right and i think you know, despite the back and forth very unfortunate and unseemingly phone calls, the reality here is what's important i believe or the most important is what happened on the ground in niger. and yes, there is a pentagon review of this, but the white house has been unusually silent about this. and the president, we are told had a draft statement after politico reported this and we confirmed it that he had a draft statement on his desk that he was going to release the day after when there were three dead for sure and did not release it. the white house decide d not to release it. sarah sanders wanted to do it

from the podium, but to not have a statement like this in the president's name, it's interesting. the basic question, there seems to be so much confusion over this. this is the biggest attack on his watch as commander in chief. deadliest as republicans called for questions in benghazi, you know, the same is due here. >> it's also just enough off the radar screen, that people have questions about what's our mission in niger? what were we trying to accomplish there? what was the role of the u.s. versus french? who was in charge? were these the right type of special operations folks for the mission? did they have the support they needed? was this well coordinated? was it just inherent in the dangers of this sort of mission or was there a problem with the mission and how does it fit into the big picture of operations around the world? we know what we're doing, sort of, visa vee afghan, syria,

iraq. obviously, the u.s. operation against isis is much more th nuanced and complicated and widespread than what is in front of us. >> it's a key point. the former secretary of state, she's a democrat, if you're watching, you might think anything she says is going to be critical of the administration. but they put out comet. the administration can rightly claim today for example, success in raqqah. isis lost a key piece of real estate in its so-called calaphate. but do the american people know they're fighting isis related gang as and michelles in africa? american people don't know a will the object that. the commander in chief needs to broadly explain why american troops are in these places. >> the thing that really bothers me, we have no explanation of any kind of strategy. of what the president, what this administration is think iing abt in terms of our overall national

security strategy. i try to fol le this carefully, but in most region, we don't know the plan of the trump administration. >> she doesn't mean the president likes to say i want to be unpredictable. he doesn't mean we're sending x amount of troops into here. just a broad strategy. here's wh isis is around the world. where they're moving and evolving and here's what we're doing to fight it. >> we have it in other parts of the world, where american soldiers and intelligence operations are are operating. we have a big speech on the south asia policy. i think there are these questions that again, the white house is being very rhett sant to talk about what is going on here. we know a little bit about a sort of the french the heavily involved in counterterrorism operations here. i will say this about the question, the white house is saying this issue over the statement is sort of much adieu about nothing.

that this is essentially a communication decision made that they drafted a statement and then decide d it was a better strategy to have sarah sanders say it. the better feeling is that the white house isn't being forthcoming and we have less information than we think we should. maybe they would say it's more complicated that that. >> they may have less than to make the phone calls. >> pthe president talks about everything under the sun. he tweets. he talks. of course he's not going to explain the admission or if there was a problem with it, but to not put out a statement in his words, that's what the question is here. he only talked about it this week after our sarah murray asked him about it in that extraordinary rose garden conference on monday, which is what started this whole thing. >> she asked him a general question and he went ton to attack his predecessor.

>> we'll take a quick break again. the president is meeting with the governor of puerto rico. also important to the president today, voterama. the on the budget, the key vehicle for the president's tax cut plan. you do all this research on a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. your insurance company raises your rates. maybe you should've done more research on them. for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch and you could save $782

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welcome back. just moments away from hearing from the president of the united states meeting with the governor of puerto rico at the white house. as we wait, you probably know this. nothing is ever easy on capitol hill. that's especially true when the president can't seem to make up his mind. tuesday, president trump said he was for it. the it, a bye paipartisan plan

stabilize the obamacare marketplace. he asked lamar alexander to broker the deal, then yesterday, the president tweeting he'd against it, but now this, about an hour ago, from a frustrated sounding senator alexander. >> i talked to the president last night for the fourth time in ten days on the subject. he encouraged me as he has from the beginning to proceed with this. he said he's perfectly willing to consider it. he doesn't want insurance companies to be bailed out in his words. neither do we. >> help me? i mean, he clearly, the president you know, has been consistent on saying if we can't get anything, we'll work with democrats on this. so he has talked about a bipartisan bill a lot. i was in the pool spray yesterday when he was meet wg the senate finance committee. he said you know, he's for some type of agreement, but doesn't want to boil oail out the insur

companies. it's not accurate. >> the bailout term is used by republicans and you can decide this one at home, ladies and gentlemen, but it's money that goes to insurance companies that helps them, encourages to them to stay in this marketplace. so call it what you will, but the center piece of this is money, i'll call it money, to insurance company frs the federal government. you can call it a subsidy, a bailout, whatever you want, but it's money. that is what the bill is. is this proof that the president, the last the president talks to. he said he was for it the other day. that this is fixi ining obamaca. we are not voting on something that fixed obamacare. so then the white house said no, we're against it. and nourng he's open to it? >> it's intended to be -- >> if you walk the halls on capitol hill? how do they deal with this? from republican, this would be a hard vote for a lot of kopzs to take because they would be fixing obamacare. they would need to know the president was going to back them

up. how would they know that? >> and you're right that the success of the lamar murray deal is very dependent on president trump himself backing this up. and right now, there is a growing well of support for this legislation. you're going to have about a dozen cosponsors on each side. everyone's going to kind of hold their hands and jump and support this bill. but you've had the house say this is not going to be -- >> you have about 30 seconds until we hear from the president, but would the speaker or majority leader bring this to the floor if they thought the president was going to pull the rug out from under them again and blames them? >> that's why it becomes a major bargaining chip because democrats have leverage there. >> all right. good timing. to the white house. this just in, the president talking to the governor of puerto rico. >> great to have the governor of puerto rico with us. we have gotten to know each other extremely well over the next couple of weeks and i can tell you, you are a hard working governor. it's a tough situation.

so much has to be rebuilt. even from before. the difference between texas and florida and various places is we're looking at designs of a new power plant, a big electrical plant and many different designs an concepts, which is very unusual. because it was in pretty rough shape prior and now, it's in even rougher shape. with that said, i think we've done a really great job and we've had tremendous cooperation from the governor and we are getting there and people are really seeing the effort that's been put into puerto rico. it's been a very, very difficult situation for many people. especially the island nature. if you look at getting food there, we did. the distribution was difficult because the roads were blocked. the people couldn't get to their food because of the distribution centers and the roads were in really horrific shape because of the storm and sometimes, because of before the storm. but with that being said, step

by step, it's taken care of and i say we have a wonderful and the people of puerto rico have a wonderful representative with respect to themselves in the governor. this governor has worked as hard as b anybody i've seen and getting done. so i want to just thank you for all your help. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. president. thank you for setting this opportunity. you know, the it's a catastrophic situation in puerto rico as you know. it is only time where two category 4, category 5 hurricanes have passed back-to-back in a jurisdiction in the united states. but certainly, working in a united front, we are going to beat this. we know we're going to build better than before and today, it's an example, mr. president. puerto rico, we've had the opportunity to speak with members of your cabinet, decision maker, and not only talk about what we've done, but also the path forward.

to establish a commitment to treat u.s. citizens of puerto rico equally. so while we have, there has within been lot done and i want to thank you, mr. president. you answered call for the emergency declaration. you declared puerto rico a disaster area very quickly. at a verbal request that we made because we didn't electricity at that moment. you gave us the waiver for a and b for fema. and communication for your workers now. a lot still has to be done. we're hopeful that with this meetings that we're going to have, we're going to talk about the immediate needs for puerto rico. what we need to go to get out of the sustaining phase. what we need to do to stabilize puerto rico and what we need to do to build puerto rico stronger

and better than before. i am confidence that with your commitment, with your support, mr. president, we'll be able to come out of this in the long haul together with puerto rico, give the citizens of puerto rico the adequate resources. treat us the same as citizens in texas and florida and elsewhere. we will come out of this stronger and make it innovating, mr. president. i know you're a proponent of public private partnerships and i think there is an b opportunity here to leverage growth in the energy sector and to be innovative. not only rebuild what we had in the past, but also with the aid of the federal government and with the private sector, rebuild a much modern, much stronger platform and not only have puerto rico have energy, but actually be a model of sustainable energy and growth towards the future. those are our aspirations. i think we can talk about that in the education sector, in the health care sector, and those

are all of our aspirations. we are confident within this group, we will start addressing those poignant, short-term leads, but also talk bing about the long road ahead. working together with your administration and again, i want to thank you. on behalf of the people of puerto rico for your leadership, for your team's leadership and for having a commitment to stay with the people of puerto rico. the u.s. citizens of puerto rico here for the long haul. to not just put things back together again, but to rebuild them as it should be. >> thank you. one of the things we have done is delivered to the island, massive numbers of generators for lek trelectricity because we power plants down and in such bad shape, we really had to find some way to get, especially for the hospitals and certain other areas. and we have, i don't know if it's record number, but it's got to be close. record numbers of generators. so that we have electric in the most important locations. and step by step, bringing it back, but you can't really bring

electric back until you rebuild the power plant and that's a different level of subject. with that, i will say that i have given my blessing to congress and congress is working with you and your representatives on coming up with a plan and a payment plan and how it's all going to be funded because you are talking about some substantial numbers and i guess you knew that, but i know you were talking about rebuilding your electric plant long before the hurricane, so maybe this is a reason we can do it and we'll help you and we'll all do it together. but i will say this. the people of puerto rico are amazing. just incredible people. the spirit they have. the strength they have. what they've gone through. many were isolated in areas where there were no roads, no bridges. the bridges were wiped out. it really was incredible to watch the spirit that they have and they did it with grace. they did it with a smile in many cases. it was really something

beautiful to watch. just please extend all of our warmest regards and we're with you. >> thank you so much. >> thank you very much. >> mr. president, last week -- in response to puerto rico hurricanes. how long are you willing to commit federal resources, rebuilding of puerto rico and what view -- widespread corruption among officials? >> well, i'm working very closely with the government on that. because there has been corruption on the island and we can't have that. you know, we're sending a lot of supplies. tremendous amounts of food and water and everything. and i know your folks are working on that very hard, but we just can't have it. when it comes to texas as an example and florida, you know how smooth that's been. like a well oiled machine. they are really going well and the people are working very hard. in puerto rico, they're working hard, too, but we have gotten

some of those reports from, on a local basis and i think the governor will be able to do something about that. i hope you're going to be able to do something about that. >> if we want to brief you, we've gotten some reports that food was getting either from fema or from a private sector nor if the profits, different municipalities and weren't being distributed appropriately. we did throw things. one, got the national guard to go to the municipalities and help with lodgistics. in case it was just a matter of not knowing how to execute. two, we had auditors for accountability on what food goes in and out. three, we had our department of justice and and is investigating whether there has been mismanagement of foods because it is unacceptable and as i stated the first day -- >> not by the federal, this is local we're talking about. just so we understand. brock and tom is here.

they've done an incredible job, but we're not talking on a local basis. i think john that was your question. >> right. >> yes and we are following up on that. as i stated the first day, if there is a public official that is purposely mishandle iing the food that should go to the people of puerto rico, there is going to be some hell to pay. >> mr. president, the time you're willing to commit resources -- >> i can say that that for anywhere. any place we gochlt at some point, fema has to leave. first responders have to leave and people have to take over. puerto rico is a more difficult circumstance, but at a certain point, we have to leave the various locations we're in. we were in louisiana and they have done a fantastic job. they were sort of grazed, but lake charles and the various areas were hit prertty hard, but it was a grazing hit. we worked there. they've taken over and been fantastic and texas and florida, it's been incredible to watch.

really been incredible to watch how quickly things are coming together, but at a certain time, fema and first responders and by the way, the military, we have close to 18,000 people in puerto rico right now. we moved a hospital ship, i believe the largest in the world, it's there now. you don't want to use it if you can have the local hospitals. it's better in many ways. but we have tremendous assets in puerto rico. now, at some point, no matter where it is, texas, florida, it ends. but i can say in the case of texas and the case of florida and the case of louisiana, some areas also got grazed. they have been incredible in the response and how fast it's coming back and in many cases, areas that were devastated are back. in this instance, it's a more difficult situation, but i think the governor understands that

fema, the military, first responders cannot be there forever and no matter where you go, they cannot be there forever. >> if i may briefly add to that, that is a importance of the short-term and long-term packages that will be in congress, right. we're going to need some resources. of course, fema is there for the initial response. there is some rebuilding to go through, so what's why we're thankful to the president for supporting these petitions to congress so that we can get the resources,ly quid di to kick start the economy and of course, the long-term rebuilding process and this is very important. the president has been clear on stating that you know, no u.s. citizen will be left behind and we'll be working and this is the way we work towards making better america and a better puerto rico. >> you have areas in puerto rico where we literally and still have to, but it's getting less and less, deliver food and

supplies by helicopter. because the roads have been b wiped out and the bridges have been b wiped out. there no way to get there except by helicopter. those are difficult situations and we you know, we're working with the governor and with the folks on getting it taken care of, but we are literally delivering supplies dropped by helicopter and with that being said, i have to also say our military and our first responders and brock long and fema and a tom, the job they've done has been incredible. but we are delivering very essential supplies by helicopter because there's no way to get to the area of the island. and the folks have done an incredible job. brock, would you like to say something? >> so every day we continue now, the focus is on restoring central services. you kn we stabilized a lot of the emergency power needs at the hospitals and we're starting to focus and work with the governor today and rebuilding power grids going forward as well as water treatment, waste water, roadway

systems, so we're going to continue to support the governor. we're looking at trying to specifically restore the essential power or the essential functions to six major municipalities within puerto rico that service about 80% of the population starting there and then working our way out. so the traditional recovery is going to require solution far greater than what fema typically puts down, but that's why we're here today working with the governor and the president and all of the cabinet members to figure out what the best way forward is for the longer term solutions. >> there's never been a solution where power and energy have been so devastated. never. you know, you don't have a power plant. because power plants, you don't fix them up and we're not just putting a pole up in the street. like in texas where you'd put up the poles and in florida, actually you had lot of unz ground wire which was great. it makes it a lot better in these storms. there's never been a situation where the energy and the power

has been totally destroyed. and part of the problem is that it was pretty well destroyed before the storm. we're working together to get that back up, but also to make it long-term. they were working on long-terming it prior to the storm. so now, they're really working on it. >> and that's part of the litigation strategy. i can't stress enough how important it is that we keep this on the long haul, for the long haul, that we work together. so that we can make sure that we don't just put things back. again, as they were, but we make them better than before. i think that's the, it is better for all the u.s. citizens this happens. i think in puerto rico again, looking at the long-term, recognizing we're still at the energy phase, this could allow puerto rico to be a showcase in terms of energy, protection and other. but way of mitigating and

innovating. >> why a ten. how would you grade the white house response so far? >> i'd say it was a ten. i'd it was b probably most difficult when you talk about relief, when you talk b about search. when you talk about all of the different levels. and even when you talk about lives save. i think it was worse than katrina. in many my wways, worse than anything we've seen. they got hit by a category 4. grazed. a big portion of the island, but it was grazegrazed. the rest hit florida. that was bad. then they got hit dead center. if you look at those maps, by a category 5. nobody's ever heard of a 5 hitting land. usually by that time, it's d disapated. it hit right through and kept to a 5. it right through the middle of the island. right through the middle of puerto rico. there's never been anything like that.

i give ourselves a ten. i think that locally, i really think locally, they have and this gentlemen, great leadership. i have to tell you, it's a tough job, but we have provided so much so fast. we were actually there before the storm hit. we were there before the first one. before the category 4 hit. brock and the military and a lot of people were there before the storm. we had the coast guard waiting for the storm just outside the storm and following the storm in. many lives saved. the coast guard in texas saved 16,000 lives. the coast guard is incredible. incredible the job they've done. but all of the armed forces, what they've done has been army, navy, the marines, the air fo e force, all of the goods dropped in. helicopters that weren't even meant for this purpose, all of a sudd sudden, they're delivering food

and services. i would give a ten. i would say locally, and i understand locally. a person loses his or her or their house. and then they can't duoto work. if you lose your house, it's hard to go and be a policeman for the day. you're trying to have your family you know, live, frankly. this is what happened. so many people. you read that they had no truck drivers in puerto rico. well, they have a lot, but many lost their houses. so they had to be with their families. so we would have the military driving trucks. they're not supposed to be driving trucks. it's not their eptitude. they're smart. but we had the military driving trucks. they lost their house. they were devastated. i thi they did a fantastic job. it's very nice that the gentleman who workeded for bill clinton, when he was president, gave us an a plus and that

included puerto rico. gave us an a plus and i thought that was really very nice. i really believe he's correct. we have done a really great job. texas again, really very far along. florida, very far along and puerto rico is a different kind of a situation because it needs so much infrastructure, but over period of time, that will happen. >> would that make this easier? >> we're not talking about that now. you'll get me into trouble with that question, right? we'll hold that one. how about we hold that one for a later time. >> in spanish? >> then you can interpret. >> that's right. we'll do. [speaking spanish]

[speaking spanish] [speaking spanish]

i'll say it brief version in english. >> i like it better in spanish. beautiful. >> i like it, too. so you know my job as a governor is to state what the facts are, number one, and to establish robust expectations for the people of puerto rico. and for the u.s. citizens in puerto rico. the facts are, every petition we've made to the president of the united states until this moment, it has been answered. it has been answered. the reality is that we still need to do a lot more for the people of puerto rico and that's why we're meeting here. this is not over by a long shot and again, it is the president's commitment to work with the u.s. citizens of puerto rico. to treat us equally. to make sure that those 250,000 that have lost their homes get

equal tweemt, that we can start restoring the more than 42 worlds that have been destroyed in puerto rico. that we can lift up our energy grid and that is something that needs to start happening now. and i petition the corps of engineers, i petition fema and our power authority to work together so that we can be aggressive and we can get results for the people of puerto rico in restoring energy as soon as possible while keeping an eye on having the opportunity to have a better system for puerto rico. this is you know, mr. president, in the united states has been characterized for taking extraordinary measures at extraordinary times. these are extraordinary times in puerto rico. therefore, these are extraordinary times in the united states. [ inaudible ] >> i think we'll be successful tonight. it will be possibly sometime in the morning. maybe sooner. i think we have the votes for

the budget, which will be phase one of our massive tax cuts. and reform. but i think we'll be successful tonight with respect to the budget. i think you probably know you can count the votes maybe better than most people, but i think, i think we have the votes. and frankly, i think we have the votes for the tax cuts which will follow fairly shortly there after. so we'll see what happens. i will tell you, our country needs tax cuts. these are examples when you look at what we just went there with louisiana and texas and florida and puerto rico and virgin islands. we need growth. we need people who are going to be pouring into our country. and we have that now. we're starting to have that. we're starting to have that even on the prospect of tax cuts. we have companies you saw last week, car company, massive improvements and expansions and some cases, brand-new plants. they're coming in. fox con is building a as you know, they make the apple

iphones and more. they're quoing to build a fantastic plant. i think it's going to be in state of wisconsin. and hopefully, it's going to be there. we've withbeen showing that lan. it's a beautiful piece of land, i hope they like it. i think apple is going to be building some very, very big plants. people are starting to say hey, this is where we want to be. you see the stock market we hit an all-time high yesterday. i think we've hit it about 49 times, mike. so we're really, we're really doing well, but we can, we can do something very, very spectacular if we're given the tax cuts. we're one of the highest tax nations in the world. you look at our taxes compared to other competitive nations or competitor nations because i think nothing is competitive with us, but i'm a little biased, but that's the way it is. but you look at how high we pay and how much we pay and our companies, they leave because the taxes are so high. trz if we get this done, it will

be historic. it will be bigger than any plan ever you know, approved or ever. it will be the biggest tax cuts in the history f of our country. and i can tell you, we have tremendous support for this. so the budget is going probably fairly late tonight. it will be working late tonight. could be one of those morning calls that you'll be watching your television at 3:00 in the morning and it could be sooner than that. i think we'll have the votes. right after the budget, we'll start with the vote on the as you know, tax cuts and i think we're in very good shape. >> mr. president, who's going to pay for the infrastructure recovery in puerto rico? >> puerto rico, we're going to be working systems. dealing with congress. we're going to be coming before, meaning far before any existing debt that's on the island because as you know, the island has massive debt. just their, as we talk about the electrical facilities, i think they have 9 billion in debt. any bet put in will be coming

before that debt. we want to make sure we put in debt and that debt is absoluteliabsolutely ly protected. in addition to that, we're provided tremendous relief and services right now and we'll continue to provide that for a period of time and then a new group will come in and the new group will be more building oriented. when things are perfect. but we have to come before the existing debt. they have i guess by some counts, $120 billion if you add everything. probably about 120 billion. separating any money put in, whether it's by public or private, they're going to want to come in first position and that's very important. i think the governor understands that. i would imagine pretty much everyone upsnderstands that. >> so no bailout. >> we're helping a lot. this is costing a lot of money. having fema. the military, the first respo responde responders. we're doing that because of we have an obligation to puerto

rico, to humanity, to ourselves. we want to continue to do a great job on that. and we're doing it. at some point, your going to have to, there's going to have to be reconstruction. the biggest thing is the power plants. it's bad when you have to say power plapts are almost coming before bridges, but you have power plants that are needed. you have bridges that are needed and roadways that are needed. that's something that you don't see when you go into areas hit by hurricanes. or disaster of almost any kind. [ inaudible ] well, it's you know, it's a very, very good question, actually. as you know, we have most, much of the electric is done by generators that have been brought to the island and massive numbers as i said before. the plant itself is going to take a while. we have to build a brand-new plant. or we have to do essentially a renovation that's so large it's

going to be like a new plant. we're looking at both now. there's never been a case where power plants were gone. this isn't just like you know, as i said, i don't want to just fix the poles. there's never been a case where power plants were gone. it's going to be a period of time before electric is restored. as i said, the president has answered all of our petitions and what this is still ongoing, so we expect this that will continue. we're being you know, very diligent getting all of the data and what we want to do and i want to circle this. this is a storm centric approach to what happens. there was a massive devastation and catastrophe in puerto rico. that's why a responder effort was there. that's why the stabilization effort was there. that's why we set very

aggressive milestones to restore energy in puerto rico. to have about 30% of the energy by the end of the month. by the middle of next month, about 50% and so on. because we want make sure that people have that knowledge of where we're going to go. that they can stay in puerto rico and they can be part of the rebuilding process. what's going to keep the people there and keep this going is know thag we have the backing of the white house and knowing that we're going to have the backing of congress so that we can have the resources appropriate to attend to the storm and then be smart about it. be innovative and restore puerto rico to a better position than before. leveraging over stake hoholders private stakeholders, nonfor profits. people that want to innovate. this is our opportunity. again to showcase that puerto rico, u.s. citizens of puerto rico can come out of this catastrophe stronger than ever before. >> i just want