A distraught Los Angeles mother confronted California Gov. Gavin Newsom amidst the ashes of her neighborhood and demanded to know what he was doing about the wildfires that had consumed her city. The beleaguered governor claimed he was asking President Biden for federal assistance, but that was just the thing. Unable to receive.
“Governor! Governor! I live here, Governor! It was my daughter's school!” Pacific Palisades resident Rachel Dervish said Thursday as she followed Newsom through the carnage in Los Angeles. spoke.
“What are you going to do for her?” she said as she cornered him next to her car, in an exchange filmed by Sky News.
Newsom held up his cell phone and said he was “literally” calling the president at that exact moment to discuss support.
But when Darvish asked him to prove it, Newsom said he couldn't accept it.
“Can you hear me? Can I hear you calling? I can't believe it!” Darvish said.
“I made five calls. That's why I walk around and make calls,” Newsom responded. “I'm so sorry, especially to your daughter.”
Darvish then learned what Newsom, who President-elect Trump has accused of disrupting Southern California's water supply, was doing to help the community and why things turned out the way they did. I demanded.
“Why wasn't there water in the hydrants, Governor? Will it be different next time?” she asked.
“It must be so, of course it must be,” he answered in a quiet tone.
“what are you going to do?”
“We are doing everything we can,” the governor said. “I'll do whatever I can.”
“But you're not!” she shot back.
Newsom eventually returned to his car and said he was going to call the president, while Dervish said he wanted “at least an opportunity to tell people what I'm doing and what I say I'm doing.” I kept asking for it.
The governor, along with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, are accused of mismanagement of the deadly fire, which continues to burn largely unchecked across some 30,000 acres in the city.
One of the main complaints concerned hydrants running out of water as firefighters tried to extinguish the fire. Newsom put the issue to “local residents” in a CNN interview Wednesday night.
“Local people are trying to figure it out,” he told CNN's Anderson Cooper, arguing that hydrants are not designed to handle mass fires.
“So hydrants are common for two or three fires. Perhaps one fire could cause a fire of this magnitude. But again, this is to be determined by the local population. ” he said.
Newsom was directly called out by President Trump, writing on Truth Social late Wednesday night, “This is all his fault!!!”
“One of the greatest and most beautiful parts of the United States is burning down. It's ashes,” Gavin Newscam said. [sic] He should resign.”
Earlier in the day, the president-elect accused Newsom of blocking legislation passed during his first term that would have diverted runoff from Northern California, but President Trump said Newsom was more concerned about helping the public. He said his focus was on rescuing “worthless fish.”
“Now the ultimate price is being paid. I demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean fresh water to flow into California. He is responsible for this.”
Newsom dismissed Trump's criticism, saying the president-elect is trying to politicize the disaster.
“People are literally fleeing, some are losing their lives. Children have lost their schools. Families have been completely torn apart. Churches have been burned down. This person wanted to politicize. I have a lot of thoughts and I know what I want to say, but I don't want to say it,” Newsom told CNN.
