Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that charges of racism against President Donald J. Trump are unfounded in part because of the 45th president's large financial contribution to Dr. Paul's2015 Haiti medical mission trip.
“I think it’s unfair to sort of paint him, ‘oh well, he’s a racist,’ when I know for a fact that he cares very deeply about the people of Haiti because he helped finance a trip where they would get vision back for 200 people in Haiti,” Paul said.
In 2015, Rand Paul was part of a group of U.S. doctors who volunteered their time to go serve some of the world’s poorest individuals and assist in various medical procedures.
At the time Guardian published a detailed article on this trip.
“People need to be encouraged it’s not much longer,” said Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul, an ophthalmologist by training, without taking his eyes off Saint Fleur.
As many of Paul’s competitors courted voters in Iowa and New Hampshire over the last week, Kentucky’s fiery junior senator joined a team of eye surgeons on a four-day mission to Haiti, giving vision to nearly 200 who would not have been blind if they lived in the US. Here in the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, “curable blindness” from common ailments such as
“If Jesus can give me back my vision, I will be happy,” said Saint Fleur, who would soon have a cataract almost the size of a dime removed from his left eye. The aging man, who balances himself with a worn walking stick, said he wanted his vision back simply to see his family again.”
Rand Paul helped Saint Fleur and nearly 200 more Haitians see, the Guardian article continues.
On Tuesday morning, the day after his surgery, Saint Fleur sat in a room crowded with patients quietly waiting for the bandages to come off. He was speechless for a few moments after the white gauze was peeled away. Then he began to smile.
“I see! I see!” he said, joy spreading across his face. With shaking hands, he began reaching out for nearby medical staff, hugging anyone he could and affectionately touching their faces.
“I love you,” he told a nurse. “Yesterday I couldn’t see!”
Saint Fleur then spoke directly to Paul: “If it’s for money, I could not do this. I have no money,” he said through an interpreter. “God sent you to me.”
President Trump has fallen under harsh criticism this week, over allegedly referring to Haiti as a “sh*thole” country and wondering why America accepted its immigrants.
