New York Times labels Kamala Harris’ trip to Puerto Rico an ‘epic fail’: Columnist says visit where she clapped awkwardly to protest song was ‘reminiscent of the HBO show Veep’
- Harris unconsciously clapped along to a song that protesters performed during her visit
- Dr. Yarimar Bonilla wrote for the New York Times that Harris’ visit was “an embarrassing spectacle.”
- Residents of Puerto Rico are struggling to keep basic infrastructure such as power and running water running.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to Puerto Rico last week was labeled an “epic failure” by a New York Times op-ed Thursday.
Harris made a quick trip to Puerto Rico on Friday for an event featuring a home outfitted with solar panels and a visit to a cultural community center before attending a major fundraiser by some of the island’s wealthiest residents. The visit lasted about five hours.
Dr. Yarimar Bonilla criticized Harris’ actions on the island in a opinion for the Times, referring to the incident in which Harris unknowingly clapped to protesters’ music during her visit.
“In a scene reminiscent of the HBO show Veep, the vice president clapped unhappily along to the Spanish protest songs that greeted her, apparently unaware that the lyrics were critical of her visit,” she wrote.
HBO’s show Veep is the dark comedy of the first historical female vice president dealing with the absurdity of politics and awkward social encounters during her time in office.
US Vice President Kamala Harris (2nd from left) watches a performance at the Goyco Community Center
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris (2nd from right) cheers on the performers during a tour of the Goyco Community Center in San Juan, Puerto Rico
The translated lyrics of the Spanish protest song were as follows:
‘We want to know, Kamala
Why did you come here?
We want to know, Kamala
We want to see
If you’re going to talk about law 60
Or about the Fiscal Control Council
The vice president is here
Making history
We want to know
What she thinks of the colony
We will keep playing
The plena of our country
Long live free Palestine
and also Haiti!’
A demonstrator holds a sign during a protest against US Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to San Juan, Puerto Rico
A demonstrator holds a sign during a protest against U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Local residents of Puerto Rico are outraged by Act 60, which offers land investors major tax breaks as long as they buy property in Puerto Rico and live there for six months. The revised laws have sparked a land rush in Puerto Rico, making housing and land costs more expensive.
Bonilla also revealed that it took seven years for the home Harris visited to be rebuilt after Hurricane Maria, a sign of how the federal government continued to fail the island.
“While the Trump administration may have left Puerto Ricans in the dark after the hurricane, it was Democrats who paved the way for the storm’s disastrous aftermath,” she wrote, noting that “the federal government repeatedly put Puerto Ricans in fails, regardless of which party’. Is in charge.’
Bonilla also shared a list of Biden’s broken campaign promises to Puerto Rico, even as residents struggle for basic services such as electricity, water and education.
Although she remembered the moment when Trump threw rolls of paper towels in a crowd of hurricane victims, she indicated that Harris’ visit was just as bad.
“Although she didn’t throw away any paper towels, her visit was what Puerto Ricans call a papelón – an embarrassing spectacle,” she concluded.