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This is the best tick-tock I've seen on White House mgmt of Puerto Rico response. And it is so, so, so damning. 1/ washingtonpost.com/politics/lost-…
I've tried to be balanced re: Trump's handling of PR, incl in my piece today, b/c I know how hard this stuff is. 2/ wapo.st/2xLtuKe?tid=ss…
But WaPo report tonight makes that impossible. Confirms worst suspicions. Clear that WH took their eye off the ball at the worst moment. 3/
The 2-3 days immediately after a major event are critical; that's when you gauge damage in order to calibrate response. 4/
During that critical window, rather than shaping response, POTUS was at golf club. Even held work mtgs; but not on PR. 5/ 
Senior admin officials didn't visit PR to assess situation first-hand until 5 days post storm. Inexcusable. 6/
Tellingly, what set Trump off and spurred his attention was not briefings - it was bad tv coverage. 7/
He didn't hold a high level meeting on the storm response until Tuesday - SIX DAYS after landfall. This is disaster mgmt malpractice. 8/
And it has become clearer and clearer that response hasn't had the resources and people it needs - as DoD is now admitting.
Why do I call this malpractice? Because they had all the tools they needed to see this for what it was; if only they'd paid attention. 10/
Storm played out exactly as forecast. Was clear it would be devastating, and it was. And then....the President left things on autopilot. 11/
And that has had real, tangible, harmful consequences for the speed and effectiveness of the response. 12/
It makes me so mad I could spit. 13/
FEMA staff deserve better. DoD staff deserve better. And most of all, the people of Puerto Rico deserve better. This is not leadership. /end
