A series of tweets from the Hill on Friday took Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) out of context to imply he wanted Puerto Rico to fend for itself while the country recovers from Hurricane Maria's devastation.
According to the tweets, Ryan said Puerto Rico needs to "get back on its own two feet."
Ryan: Puerto Rico needs to "get back on its own two feet" https://t.co/UcCk883IIG pic.twitter.com/QlEWFOx3SD
— The Hill (@thehill) October 13, 2017
Ryan: Puerto Rico needs to "get back on its own two feet" https://t.co/m7MF5U6wLV pic.twitter.com/g3aZqBNLF2
— The Hill (@thehill) October 13, 2017
Ryan: Puerto Rico needs to "get back on its own two feet" https://t.co/DU3fCW5Xib pic.twitter.com/zv2UggVIMc
— The Hill (@thehill) October 12, 2017
But Ryan was actually making the case for the federal government to continue to invest resources into rebuilding the U.S. territory. The headline of the actual Hill piece was "Ryan: Feds have duty to help Puerto Rico."
"Yes, we need to make sure that Puerto Rico can begin to stand on its own two feet," Ryan said. "They’ve already had tough fiscal problems to begin with ... We’ve got to do more to help Puerto Rico rebuild its own economy so that it can be self-sufficient."
The misleading tweets came a day after Ryan announced he would be leading a bipartisan delegation to survey the damage to the island.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) appeared to fall victim to not reading past the tweet, linking to it and snarking, "Funny, you never said that about Houston," a reference to the devastation brought on the Texas city by Hurricane Harvey.
Funny, you never said that about Houston. https://t.co/Q40gGUVZC5
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) October 13, 2017
UPDATE: 12:26 P.M.: This article was updated with Murphy's tweet about the article.