Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora recently spoke out about why he skipped a trip to the Trump White House after leading his team to the 2018 World Series title.
During an interview on “The Mayor’s Office” podcast on Wednesday, Cora admitted that she skipped meeting with President Trump because she wanted to prioritize her home country of Puerto Rico. When the Red Sox visited the White House in May 2019, Puerto Rico was still recovering from the destruction of Hurricane Maria in 2017 and Cora was dissatisfied with the federal government’s response.
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Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora was born in Puerto Rico. (Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports)
“One of the things that (not that I regret it, but I think I should have been clearer) was a visit to the White House,” Cora said. “I have nothing against the president at that moment. It was Donald Trump at that moment, President Trump, but I felt like he was celebrating something at that moment, while [Puerto Ricans] We were still suffering, it was bad. “I didn’t feel comfortable doing it.”
Cora says he would have felt “uncomfortable” celebrating at the White House, given the state of his country at the time.
“We are part of the United States,” he continued. “What they do for us is amazing (the funding, all that), but there was still work to be done. And I felt very uncomfortable, like, ‘let’s celebrate this at the White House’ right when a lot of people were suffering here. People took it as politics. No. My thing is sports and my family, right?
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The Boston Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the World Series in 2018. (AP)
In May 2019, Cora told reporters that the US government has done “some things at home that are great,” but added that “we still have a long way to go.”
“I’d rather not go. And, you know, be consistent with everything,” Cora said then about not attending the White House visit.
Trump himself called his hurricane response an “incredible success” in September 2018 while delivering remarks in the Oval Office.
“I think Puerto Rico was incredibly successful,” Trump said. “I think the work that FEMA, the law enforcement authorities and everyone did, working together with the governor of Puerto Rico, was tremendous. I think Puerto Rico was an incredible and unrecognized success.”
Cora says he would have felt “uncomfortable” celebrating at the White House, given the state of his country at the time. (Images by Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn)
Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit the island in September 2017, the last of which In August 2018, the official death toll increased from 64 people initially killed to 2,975.
The updated figure emerged through an independent investigation ordered by the local government, prompting Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló to raise the official figure.
The Trump administration’s efforts in Puerto Rico received widespread criticism. But after visiting the island in September 2017, the president said Puerto Ricans were lucky that the storm did not cause a catastrophe similar to the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast in 2005.
