Broadway musical star Lin-Manuel Miranda continues to inject abject, over-the-top partisan politics into his post-Hurricane María relief efforts for Puerto Rico, and the liberal media just keep lapping it up, failing to challenge or call him out on any of his demonstrably false, hyper-partisan statements.
The entertainer’s anti-Trump animus now has him accusing the President of literally robbing Puerto Rico’s traditional Three Kings Day celebration from island children, and evidently using his artistic license to play fast and loose with multiple facts about Trump’s statements and response to the 2017 hurricanes in both Florida and Puerto Rico.
All that and more was on display in the anti-Trump tirade Miranda delivered in an interview with Telemundo’s Rebeka Smyth, ostensibly to promote a Three Kings Toy drive for Puerto Rico’s kids in coordination with the Hispanic Federation, Toys “R” US and Telemundo.
LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA: When it was Florida, it was 'Whatever you need, Florida.' When Hurricane María arrived in Puerto Rico there was one tweet to the Governor saying 'Good luck, we're thinking about you' and then a week goes by without even saying the word Puerto Rico on Twitter. And that tell us that the President of the United States does not care about Puerto Rico..it’s a moment of shame.
As part of the toy drive, evidently Lin-Manuel has no concern about depressing donations or participation by turning off the 62 million Americans who elected President Trump to office last year. But more importantly, for starters, President Trump never made a Hurricane Irma-related statement even close to “Whatever you need, Florida.”
Moreover, just by taking a look at the Trump Twitter Archive, one can easily see that Trump’s tweets (not just “one tweet" as Miranda falsely says) as Hurricane María struck Puerto Rico was nothing close to “Good luck, we’re thinking about you” but rather were even more direct and personal
than his comparable tweets as Irma hit Florida (for example, when he retweeted his son, Eric):
In addition, less than five days passed (not “a week” as Miranda falsely says) between his Puerto Rico-related tweets and retweets
along with multiple times thereafter before visiting personally on October 3.
After all the resources and special waivers President Trump granted Puerto Rico, including billions of dollars in aid following Hurricane María, for Miranda to say “the President of the United States does not care about Puerto Rico” is patently false, fake news, that Telemundo’s report helped him to construct with images of the President tossing paper towels to hurricane victims as if that were all he did (more deliberately slanted news) as Trump also handed out food and other supplies in Puerto Rico, just like he did in Texas and Florida.
In sum, what was front and center in both Lin-Manuel’s diatribe and Telemundo’s report was once again bashing and portraying Trump in the worst possible light by spreading fake news to audiences, and not focusing on Puerto Rico’s needy kids at Christmastime.
Below is a transcript of the above-referenced segment, as it appeared on the December 12, 2017 edition of Noticias Telemundo:
REBEKA SMYTH, CORRESPONDENT, TELEMUNDO: The writer and artist Lin-Manuel Miranda remembers how excited he got as a child every time the Three Kings visited his house. Unfortunately, this year many of Puerto Rico's children will not have the same experience, according to him, for lack of support from the Government of the United States.
LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA: We have seen how the youth have been so strong during this time, they have survived through so much and the least we can do is to support them and give them a little bit of magic this Christmas.
REBEKA SMYTH: That is why he decided to take on the initiative and join forces with the Hispanic Federation, Toys R Us, Revolución Latina and our home, Telemundo, to collect thousands of toys through the Toys for Puerto Rico campaign, to put a smile on the faces of children on the island.
REBEKA SMYTH: How to you think the administration of President Trump has treated the island?
LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA: When it was Florida, it was 'Whatever you need, Florida'. When Hurricane María arrived in Puerto Rico there was one tweet to the Governor saying 'Good luck, we're thinking about you' and then a week goes by without even saying the word Puerto Rico on Twitter. And that tell us that the President of the United States does not care about Puerto Rico. It’s a moment of shame. Puerto Ricans who come in enormous numbers to the United States, and can vote, they are not going to forget about that, either.
