*By Carlo Versano*
The president's denying the deaths of an estimated 3,000 Americans from a hurricane ー just as millions more seek shelter from another storm ー hasn't sat well, even with members of his own party.
Republicans running in competitive races in Florida found themselves rebuking Donald Trump's false claim Thursday that Puerto Rico's death toll from Hurricane Maria was fabricated by Democrats to make the president look bad.
There are major implications for the party, said GOP consultant Rick Wilson, author of "Everything Trump Touches Dies".
Trump "just put a bullet in Rick Scott's Senate campaign," he said Thursday in an interview on Cheddar.
Scott, the Florida Governor now vying for Democratic incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson's seat, wasted no time distancing himself from Trump on this issue, [tweeting](https://twitter.com/ScottforFlorida/status/1040265322270474242) on Thursday, "I disagree with @POTUS," adding that he's seen the devastation first hand.
Meanwhile, Ron DeSantis, Florida's Republican nominee for Governor and one of the most unabashedly pro-Trump candidates in the country ー he recently ran an [ad](https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/07/31/ron-desantis-campaign-ad-florida-candidate-orig-mss.cnn) showing him reading "The Art of the Deal" to his infant son ー released a [statement](https://twitter.com/CHeathWFTV/status/1040256381801123840) saying he “doesn’t believe any loss of life has been inflated.”
Florida is home to thousands of Maria evacuees and a large Puerto Rican population that might take issue with the president insisting their friends and relatives didn't actually die, said Wilson.
Trump's inability to project empathy ー whether it's for storm victims or a Senator he disagrees with ー is one issue behind the latest erosion in his poll numbers and an "ever shrinking base," Wilson added.
Indeed, Thursday's comments, which FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver unequivocally [called] (https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1040246573689659392?s=20) "the worst thing he's ever tweeted," appears to be a bridge too far to cross for even some of Trump's most ardent backers ー two months before a crucial election, at that.
Projecting empathy and leadership ahead of a hurricane "is a lay-up," Wilson said.
"You can never rely on Donald Trump to get out of his own way."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/president-trump-stirs-up-storm-with-controversial-hurricane-comments).
Michelle Bond, CEO of the Association for Digital Asset Markets, joins Closing Bell, where she breaks down the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, which would not only establish a regulatory structure for digital assets, but hand over crypto oversight to the CFTC instead of the SEC.
Sarah Warbelow, legal director for Human Rights Campaign, joins Cheddar News to discuss why advocates want to overturn the FDA's rule restricting gay and bisexual men from donating blood.
David Levine, elections integrity fellow with Alliance for Securing Democracy, joins Cheddar News to discuss Politico's bombshell finding revealing the RNC's plan to contest the elections.
A survey by the BMO Real Financial Progress Index found that 25 percent of Americans are pulling back on retirement contributions to offset the cost of inflation. This comes as market volatility reduced retirement savings with the S&P 500 shedding more than 12 percent this year alone.
As abortion rights take center stage in courts around the country, so do discussions about reproductive health. Signs and social media posts say things like "protect women's rights" and "her body, her choice," leaving others who need and receive abortions completely out of the picture. The potential end to Roe v. Wade would impact far more people and facilities than you may think. Cheddar News' Baker Machado breaks it all down.
Arkansas is planning to reshape itself by putting a strong emphasis on technology through computer science in the classroom. Governor Asa Hutchinson joined Cheddar News Buffa to discuss the state's efforts to promote itself as a future tech hub. “It gives young people such a huge opportunity for success," he noted. The term-limited governor also touched on the issue of gun ownership, offering up the idea of possibly raising the age limit to obtain rifles like the AR-15 to 21 instead of 18 as it currently stands.
The dating app Bumble has sponsored bills and pushed lawmakers to criminalize the online practice of sending unsolicited nudes or “cyberflashing." Payton Iheme, Bumble's head of public policy for the Americas, joined Cheddar News to discuss why the app was going after the harassing behavior beyond its own platform. "Now, while we went to work internally in the company, and we created something called private detector to automatically blur those images so the user can decide if they want to see them, there's nothing for the rest of the internet," she said. "And so that's why we went to work with these laws."
