Donald Trump raged against California politicians for incompetence in dealing with the deadly fires in Los Angeles.
The president-elect has criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom for his handling of the fires in Los Angeles, suggesting he could do a better job managing the crisis.
Trump has pointed to Newsom’s forest management policies and fish conservation efforts as factors leading to fire hydrants running dry in some heavily affected urban areas, forcing thousands to evacuate and abandon their homes.
In response, Newsom accused Trump of spreading misinformation and expressed a hope that the new administration would collaborate with him in a spirit of cooperation.
The governor also says he invited Trump to survey the damage from the L.A. wildfires but that he has not yet responded to that invitation.
‘The fires are still raging in L.A.,’ Trump posted to Truth Social on Sunday morning. ‘The incompetent pols have no idea how to put them out.’
‘Thousands of magnificent houses are gone, and many more will soon be lost,’ he lamented. ‘There is death all over the place.’
‘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 questioned, placing the blame on Newsom and other Democratic politicians in California.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants finger-pointing to stop as Donald Trump blames his mismanagement of water, forest management policies and fish conservation efforts for the raging wildfires in Los Angeles
Trump lamented that ‘incompetent pols’ are unable to ‘put out the fires’ and questioned ‘what’s wrong with them’ that they can’t stop the disaster from ragingÂ
Newsom told NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff that his team is trying to get to the bottom of ‘what the hell happened’ to cause the water systems to fail.
‘Was it just overwhelmed, that you had so much that was used?’ he posed in an interview aired on Meet the Press on Sunday morning. ‘Was it pipes? Was it electricity?’Â
‘Was that drawdown impossible because you lost seven-plus thousand structures right here anyway and every single structure we lost had a pipe that was leaking, and we would’ve lost that water pressure anyway?’ Newsom continued.Â
‘Did it contribute in any way to our inability to fight the fire? Or were 99 mile-an-hour winds determinative and there was really no firefight that could’ve been more meaningful?’
‘All of us want to know those answers, and I just don’t want to wait because people are asking me. I want to know those facts. I want them objectively determined, and let the chips fall where they may. This is not about finger pointing,’ Trump’s foe insisted.
Not wanting to take full responsibility for the failures that allowed the fires to get so out of control, Newsom insisted ‘we’re all in this together.’
‘I mean, you’re governor of California. It might as well be the mayor of California,’ Newsom said in reference 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’re working together to take care of people and to make sure people are supported.’
He continued: ‘We’re empathetic. And we’re here not just in the immediacy of the crisis, but we’re here after the crisis. As opposed to creating a crisis in the middle of this by trying to divide people and play political – take cheap political shots.’
The fires in Los Angeles have so far left 16 people dead and swept through 37,000 acres, 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 cost associated with reconstruction and recovery efforts once the fires are finally extinguished.Â
So far 16 people are accounted for as deceased from the fires that have swept through 37,000 acres in the greater Los Angeles area. More than 12,000 structures were destroyed as of Sunday morning.
The 2017 Tubbs fire in California destroyed 5,600 houses and just a year later during Camp Fire 18,000 housing units were lost and 85 people lost their lives.
‘I’ve got search and rescue teams out. We’ve got cadaver dogs out. And there’s likely to be a lot more,’ Newsom said of the rising death toll.
Trump blames the recent increase of California wildfires on his political opponents mismanagement.
