Puerto Rico needed a hero after Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated much of the island and left millions without power, food, and water; and that hero was San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz.
In the weeks following the horrific natural disaster, Cruz has waded through sewage, rescued people from an assisted living facility, met with countless victims, and put her career and reputation on the line by calling out President Donald Trump on his inadequate response to the humanitarian crisis plaguing her country.
In response, Trump tweeted that Cruz possessed "such poor leadership ability" and that she and others in the country "want everything to be done for them." According to The Hill, Trump later told Fox News that she was "very nice at the beginning...she went a little bit on the nasty side and I said I guess she's running for office, and it turns out I'm right."
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
That was the wrong move.
On Wednesday, just one day after meeting with Trump for the first time face-to-face, Cruz stepped in front of the camera wearing a shirt emblazoned with the word "Nasty."
San Juan mayor wore jacket over the shirt for MSNBC interview but it was out front for Univision interview pic.twitter.com/Oq21kteYL0
— David Rutz (@DavidRutz) October 4, 2017
"What is truly nasty is that anyone would turn their back on the Puerto Rican people," she said in Spanish during an interview with Univision.
Cruz has repeatedly vocalized her discontent with the way in which Trump has made providing hurricane relief a political act, saying things like: "But, really, this is about saving lives. This isn’t about politics. Some people make it about politics, because they want to change the dialogue, because looking at the injustice and the suffering and the face will have to make them admit their failures."
Trump visited Puerto Rico on Tuesday, during which he patronized the millions in pain by throwing paper towel rolls into a crowd and implying that because thousands hadn't died, Hurricane Maria wasn't "a real catastrophe like Katrina."
So go ahead, Trump. Keep calling powerful women like Cruz and Hillary Clinton "nasty." At the end of the day, they'll be the ones doing what it takes to make the world a better place.