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Bill Nelson continues to jab at Rick Scott over nursing home deaths

Second time he alludes to controversy from Senate floor
 
Sen. Bill Nelson is gearing up for a race against. Gov. Rick Scott.
Sen. Bill Nelson is gearing up for a race against. Gov. Rick Scott.
Published Sept. 27, 2017|Updated Sept. 27, 2017

WASHINGTON - Sen. Bill Nelson for the second time invoked the tragic deaths at a South Florida nursing home and jabbed at Gov. Rick Scott over the phone calls the facility made to him.

Speaking on the Senate floor on Tuesday, Nelson called it the “tragedy of all tragedies, 11 frail, elderly seniors died in a hotbox that was a nursing home that had lost power and the generators that were required under existing law, existing regulations of the state of Florida, the generators were for putting back on the lights. They weren’t the generators sufficient in order to run the air conditioning systems. And 11 senior citizens perished.

“And that was after a number of calls that had been made to the governor’s cell phone and calls that were made to Florida Power and Light. And there is a criminal investigation that is under way that will answer some of the questions of why, as they pled for help to come and to get back on the power, why were those never answered and as a result 11 people have died?”

“Something like that just simply shouldn’t happen in America, a country that has the resources and the compassion that our people have,” Nelson said.

Scott has rejected the criticism, saying the calls were referred to the proper place and that the nursing home should have dialed 911.

Related: Rick Scott's office deleted messages related to Irma nursing home deaths

Nelson on Tuesday also gave out his office numbers for people to call. “We’ll get to the bottom of it, because in an emergency situation like that, with people’s lives on the line, that should never happen again.”