Emergency aid in times of crises is rarely a partisan bickering point, but the wildfires in California that have ripped through parts of Los Angeles in the past week are being politicized in a way few disasters are.
Republicans at the highest level have used the fires as a rhetorical weapon to burn California’s Democratic leadership, mostly Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass, including President-elect Donald Trump who criticized Gov. “Newscum” and alleged that mismanagement of resources is responsible for the devastation.
Trump wrote on TruthSocial: “The fires are still raging in L.A. The incompetent pols have no idea how to put them out. Thousands of magnificent houses are gone, and many more will soon be lost. 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?”
Newsom is battling against that MAGA narrative, which is spreading at the same torrid pace as California fires as powerful and influential figures like Elon Musk are fanning the rhetorical flames for his hundreds of millions of followers.
The Governor posted the video below of Musk getting answers from firefighters that don’t fit the “mismanagement” narrative, characterizing the exchange as one in which Musk gets “exposed” for “his lies.”
Essentially the firefighter tells Musk that no water resources system possesses the capacity the current California conflagrations required — nearly 1,000 gallons per building.
.@ElonMusk exposed by firefighters for his own lies. pic.twitter.com/3Q8xFZaQ3S
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 13, 2025
But the mismanagement narrative continues to get real traction in Washington, where the newly re-elected House Speaker Mike Johnson indicated (see below) that he is open to seeing emergency aid withheld from California — because, he asserts, the state’s leaders have been “derelict in their duties.”
Johnson said unequivocally — without offering evidence — that “obviously there has been water resource mismanagement” and “mistakes, all sorts of problems and it does come down to leadership and it appears to us that state and local leaders who were derelict in their duty in many respects — that’s something that has to be factored in [on decisions to provide aid].”
New — Asked Speaker Johnson about placing conditions on aid to California, and he tells us: “I think there should be conditions on that aid.” Said that’s his personal view before talking with the conference.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 13, 2025
Also says “there’s some discussion” within the House GOP about tying… pic.twitter.com/CZmjZb7WLd
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