Trump rips ‘incompetent’ Democrats over deadly LA fire chaos as Newsom hits back with ‘disinformation’ claim
Donald Trump railed against California politicians for their incompetence in fighting the deadly fires in Los Angeles.
The president-elect has been highly critical of California’s liberal Governor Gavin Newsom’s handling of the fires that have swept through the City of Angels, saying he could do a better job of managing the crisis.
Trump claims Newsom’s forest management policies and fish conservation efforts are causing fire hydrants to run dry in some urban areas hardest hit by the fires that have forced thousands of people to evacuate and abandon their homes.
But Newsom hit back at Trump for spreading “misinformation” and said he hopes the new administration can work with him with “an open hand, not a closed fist.”
The governor also says he has invited Trump to survey the damage from the LA wildfires, but has not yet responded to that invitation.
“The fires are still raging in LA,” Trump wrote in Truth Social on Sunday morning. “The incompetent police have no idea how to take them down.”
“Thousands of beautiful homes have disappeared, and many more will soon be lost,” he lamented. “There’s death everywhere.”
“This is one of the worst catastrophes in the history of our country. They just can’t put out the fires. What’s wrong with them?’ he wondered, laying the blame on Newsom and other Democratic politicians in California.
California Governor Gavin Newsom wants to stop finger-pointing as Donald Trump blames his mismanagement of water, forest management and fish conservation efforts for the raging wildfires in Los Angeles
Trump complained that “incompetent police officers” are unable to “put out the fires” and wondered “what is wrong with them” that they cannot stop the disaster.
Newsom told NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff that his team is trying to figure out what on earth happened to cause the water systems to fail.
“Was it just overwhelming, having so much that was being used?” he posed in an interview that aired Sunday morning on Meet the Press. ‘Are they blowjobs? Was it electricity?’
‘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?’ Newsom continued.
“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?’
“We all want to know those answers, and I just don’t want to wait because people ask me about them. I want to know those facts. I want them to be determined objectively, and let the chips fall where they may. This is not about finger-pointing,” Trump’s enemy emphasized.
Unwilling to take full responsibility for the failures that caused the fires to spiral out of control, Newsom insisted that “we’re all in this together.”
“I mean, you’re governor of California. It might as well be the mayor of California,” Newsom said, referring to himself. “We’re all in this together. We’re all better off when we’re all better off, and we’re all better off when we work together to care for people and make sure people are supported.”
He continued, “We are empathetic. And we are not only here in the immediacy of the crisis, but we are also here after the crisis. Instead of creating a crisis in the middle of this crisis by trying to divide people and play politics – taking cheap political shots.”
The Los Angeles fires have so far killed 16 people and burned 37,000 hectares, destroying at least 12,000 structures and homes
Newsom thinks this could be the “worst natural disaster” in U.S. history in terms of scale and scope and specifically the costs associated with rebuilding and recovery efforts once the fires are finally extinguished.
So far, 16 people have died as a result of the fires that have burned 37,000 acres in the Los Angeles area. More than 12,000 structures were destroyed Sunday morning.
The 2017 Tubbs Fire in California destroyed 5,600 homes, and just a year later the Camp Fire destroyed 18,000 homes and killed 85 people.
“I have search and rescue teams. We have cadaver dogs. And there will probably be many more,” Newsom said of the rising death toll.
Trump blames the recent increase in wildfires in California on the mismanagement of his political opponents.