Gavin Newsom is slammed for car crash interview as he furiously tries to shift blame for LA fires

Governor Gavin Newsom was criticized for his “over-the-top” body language in an interview he gave to NBC’s Meet The Press about his response to the raging wildfires in Los Angeles.

Newsom, wearing a black button-up with jeans, spoke with his hands during the 18-minute conversation that took place in Altadena, a community ravaged by the Eaton fire. He often clapped and made other grand gestures as he answered questions.

He indicated he did not know why all three water storage tanks in the Pacific Palisades — each holding about 1 million gallons — had dried up just as the fires started last week.

‘Are they blowjobs? Was it electricity? It was a combination of pipes, electricity and pumps,” Newsom told NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff as he rocked back and forth and threw his hands up. ‘Was that withdrawal impossible because you already lost more than seven thousand structures here and with every structure we lost a pipe leaked, and then we would have lost that water pressure?’

“Did it contribute in any way to our inability to fight the fire? Or were winds of 99 miles per hour decisive and there really was no firefight that could have been more meaningful?’

One person commenting on X’s interview noted the governor’s restless movements and said, “Who the hell is he dancing with?”

Another said: ‘Watching Gavin Newsome’s (sic) body language and speech suggests he is overwhelmed.’

“At the start of his interview the first thing he does is wave his fingers,” said a third.

“His physical gestures are exaggerated and distracting,” another audience member thought.

One person directed his ire at Soboroff, the interviewer, claiming he didn’t push Newsom hard enough.

“If you had an ounce of integrity or shame @jacobsoboroff“You would resign over this submissive joke of a job interview and give your job to the woman who cornered Newsom in the street with real Qs after her community burned down,” they wrote.

The interview touched on topics including Newsom’s culpability in the crisis, President-elect Donald Trump’s criticism of the state’s response to wildfires and new executive orders the governor is pursuing to provide relief to Californians.

Newsom denied he was playing the blame game by opening an independent investigation into why the reservoirs were empty.

‘How is that possible if we conduct an independent investigation and only want an opinion on the facts? Like I said, it’s not about pointing fingers. “It’s about answering the questions that you and everyone else wants answered,” he said.

As of Sunday morning, the Palisades Wildfire, west of downtown Los Angeles, has grown to approximately 22,660 acres with 11 percent containment. The Eaton Fire northeast of Los Angeles was 14,100 acres with 15 percent containment.

The fires have burned down more than 5,000 structures and killed 16 people.

Newsom put the death toll at a more conservative 13 and said his office is still getting information from coroners, adding, “I have search and rescue teams.”

“And there will probably be many more.”

Asked if it stops with him, Newsom replied: “I mean, you’re governor of California. It might as well be the mayor of California. We are all in this together. We are all better off when we are all better off.

“And we’re not just here in the immediacy of the crisis, but we’re here after the crisis, instead of creating a crisis in the middle of this crisis by trying to divide people and play politics, take cheap political shots.”

The conversation quickly shifted to President-elect Donald Trump, who blamed Newsom for the wildfires.

Trump said the governor, whom he called “Gavin Newscum” — a favorite among Republicans’ pet names — refused to accept preventive aid from the federal government when he was president.

“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water recovery declaration presented to him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water from excess rain and snowmelt from the north to flow daily to many parts of California, including areas currently in be on fire. in an almost apocalyptic way,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump also argued that Newsom’s efforts to protect a fish called the Delta smelt have cut off water supplies to farmers and major cities.

“I don’t know what he’s talking about when he talks about the Delta melt in reservoirs. The reservoirs are completely full, the state reservoirs here in Southern California,” Newsom said.

However, DailyMail.com revealed that a reservoir serving the Palisades area was shut down by Janisse Quiñones, CEO of the Department of Water and Power (LADWP).

In addition, fire hydrants normally fed by that water source, the Santa Ynez Reservoir, had broken down for months before the fires, leaving firefighters without water as they battled the devastating blazes.

The reservoir was also taken offline in recent months to repair a crack in the lid that exposed the water and potentially affected its drinkability.

The closure, which left the 117 million liter water storage complex completely empty, was first reported by the LA times on Friday morning.

When confronted, Newsom said it was “not a reservoir of the state system.”

To address the damage to people’s homes and buildings in the city, Newsom announced he would issue executive orders on “price gouging” and “recovery.”

He also said the executive orders will help people get their insurance claims “within the next few weeks.”

When it comes to rebuilding, Newsom indicated he would relax the rigid environmental review processes that often make development difficult in California.

“We want to accelerate the pace by eliminating them all [California Environmental Quality Act] requirements. I have changes to the Coastal Act that we are implementing. “I want to make sure that when someone remodels, he or she still has the old property tax bills and they don’t increase,” he says.

Newsom also thanked President Joe Biden for his promise to cover 100 percent of California’s disaster-related costs over the next 180 days. Early estimates suggest damage could occur costs as much as $150 billion.

“We got support from the President of the United States, Joe Biden, with 100% reimbursement, all the resources you could hope for, imagine that, constant communication. “I would like to extend that to the newly elected president,” he said.