Trump blames wildfires on 'Biden/Newscum duo' in multiple attacks as Californians lose all

08 January

Less than two weeks before his inauguration, President-elect Donald Trump took time on Wednesday to criticize—four times—California Governor Gavin Newsom, as three “wind-fueled wildfires” tore through Los Angeles and surrounding areas. The fires caused several deaths, destroyed more than one thousand buildings—including homes and businesses—and left massive devastation in their wake.

The Los Angeles Times called it “one of the most destructive firestorms to hit the region in memory.” At least 70,000 people have been evacuated, according to the latest AP report, and, as ABC News notes, more than 1.5 million are without power.

Wednesday afternoon, Trump blamed the massive destruction directly on Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom: “He is the blame for this,” Trump declared, calling him “Gavin Newscum.”

“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way,” Trump wrote on his social media website.

Trump’s claim about refusing to sign a “water restoration declaration” was deemed false in a statement from the governor’s office.

“There is no such document as the water restoration declaration – that is pure fiction,” the governor’s office stated. “The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need.”

Trump’s attacks continued, claiming Newsom “wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster!”

Later on Wednesday, Trump appeared to delight in the wildfire disaster.

“As of this moment, Gavin Newscum and his Los Angeles crew have contained exactly ZERO percent of the fire. It is burning at levels that even surpass last night. This is not Government. I can’t wait till January 20th!”

Trump continued to blame Newsom, and added President Joe Biden to his attack.

“The fires in Los Angeles may go down, in dollar amount, as the worst in the History of our Country. In many circles, they’re doubting whether insurance companies will even have enough money to pay for this catastrophe. Let this serve, and be emblematic, of the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the Biden/Newscum Duo. January 20th cannot come fast enough!”

On Wednesday, in an all-caps rant, Trump also wrote: “No water in the fire hydrants, no money in FEMA. This is what Joe Biden is leaving me. Thanks Joe!”

The Hill reports that “Newsom and President Biden announced last month new rules to carry water to California farmers, as well as Los Angeles area residents, as a modification to the 2019 Trump-era regulation. Environmental advocates had pushed for the new rule in order to protect fish, including smelt.”

On the campaign trail in September, then-candidate Trump threatened Newsom with withholding federal funds “to put out all his fires.”

Former Obama spokesperson Tommy Vietor blasted Trump, saying: “Everyone in LA is terrified right now and trying to figure out what to do, where to go, and how to keep their kids safe from fire and smoke. Our president-elect’s response is to launch another stupid political attack and pretend that the governor can stop the Santa Ana Winds.”

Meanwhile, Republicans jumped on the bandwagon and began attacking California.

Far-right U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona attacked California, suggesting they are not managing water properly, while also attacking FEMA, and spreading a false, debunked claim that the federal agency “diverted, uh, well over a billion, almost two billion dollars, to illegal alien care, and not emergency management care.”

“So we’ve got a lot of a lot of uh things that we need to assess at the federal level, uh, and and I I don’t want to jump all over this too much, but don’t forget that California uh, they, they really need to do a job statewide, managing their water resources. They, the millions of acre feet of water that they just allowed to flow out to to the uh the ocean every year.”

Independent journalist Justin Glawe, who writes the Substack newsletter “Welcome to American Doom,” noted: “If you want an idea of the capacity for empathy from the American right, Sean Hannity is kicking off his radio show right now by blaming California wildfires on Democrats and claiming Trump was right about ‘raking’ forest floors in 2018.”

President Joe Biden, who is in California, met with Governor Newsom and offered support.

“The White House said it was surging resources to the impacted areas of California, including five U.S. Forest Service air tankers, 10 federal firefighting helicopters and dozens of fire engines from the Forest Service,” The Hill adds.

“Newsom offered praise for Biden’s response to the fires, saying during Wednesday’s briefing that it was ‘impossible for me to express the level of appreciation and cooperation we’ve seen from the White House and this administration. So on behalf of all of us, Mr. President, thank you for being here.'”

Juliette Kayyem, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy school, a CNN national security analyst, and a “national leader in homeland security and crisis management,” remarked: “In all my years in and studying disaster management, I have never seen a president (elect) blame a jurisdiction WHILE the disaster was still out of control. It distracts, is cruel to first responders and victims, and could impede effective response.”

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