Trump delivers his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, and when he looks out into the crowd he’s in for a surprise. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has invited San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz as her guest. Cruz made waves this past year for her vocal denunciation of Trump in the wake of the hurricane that devastated the island territory.
Gillibrand made a point of the invitation on her Twitter, by lauding Cruz for her superb leadership during the natural disaster and adding that the president and Congress need to be doing a much better job in Puerto Rico. The island has been abandoned under our current leadership and was neglected before the hurricane struck. Gillibrand tweeted:
It is an honor to announce that Mayor @CarmenYulinCruz of San Juan, Puerto Rico will join me at the #SOTU. Throughout the crisis in Puerto Rico, Mayor Cruz has shown extraordinary leadership and fearless advocacy for her city.
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) January 29, 2018
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. Our fellow citizens must not be forgotten or left behind.
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) January 29, 2018
Gillibrand, who has been suggested as a 2020 candidate, shows great leadership by embracing Cruz. The island has been incredibly neglected by the current administration, with estimates stating that half of Puerto Rico still doesn’t have power. One can’t but help think that Trump would be much more attentive to the problem if it were an island full of white people. His continued negligence is unacceptable.
As Cruz so perfectly put it: Mr. Trump do your job.