Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is bringing San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz as her guest to Tuesday’s State of the Union address.
“I hope Mayor Cruz’s presence at #SOTU will remind the president and my colleagues in Congress of our urgent responsibility to help Puerto Rico fully recover and rebuild,” Gillibrand tweeted on Monday.
Cruz has been an outspoken critic of the Trump administration’s response to the damage caused by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico after the storm hit the island last September.
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CNN reported last week that roughly half a million people on the island still don’t have electricity. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority said it had restored power to more than 1 million clients, or roughly 70 percent of its customers.
In the weeks after the storm, President Trump and Cruz feuded publicly over the recovery effort.
Trump said Cruz was “nasty” to him and showed “poor leadership ability,” and praised his own administration’s efforts on the island.
Cruz hit back, calling Trump a “Hater in Chief” and saying the administration was “killing us with inefficiency.” Cruz wore a shirt during one interview that read “help us, we are dying.”
Gillibrand, 51, has also been a vocal opponent of Trump and his policies. She has suggested Trump should resign because of sexual misconduct allegations.
Gillibrand is a potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.