Starring former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso Real Time with Bill Maher On Friday, he warned cities to be smart about rebuilding after devastating wildfires, pointing out that Donald Trump was right to criticize officials for a lack of brush removal policies.
Caruso, who ran as a Republican but lost the mayoral race to Democratic Mayor Karen Bass, said City Hall had completed a proper prevention plan ahead of the wildfires that ravaged large swathes of the Pacific Palisades this month. He told Mr. Maher that he was unable to introduce the system. He blamed city authorities for the failure on “failure to control the border.”
“Three weeks ago we had a fire in Malibu, and six years ago we had a fire in Brentwood,” Caruso said, noting that Brentwood is just 15 minutes from the Palisades fire site.
He added: “There's 40-year-old vegetation between Brentwood and the Palisades, and I said at the time that if that fire were to spread, it would come through and wipe out the Palisades. I was right. I am very sorry.”
“As expected, Bill,” he lamented. “What is predictable is preventable. On top of that, do we need to take the main reservoir out of service during peak fire season? That's border control negligence.”
Caruso also said that running a city is not that different from running a company “for the benefit of the residents,” noting that better decisions need to be made at City Hall.
Maher noted that when Trump visited California after the wildfires, he warned that the country needed to “rake up” dead brush. Maher joked that President Trump said, “You don't rake.” You're not, you're not raking. He also said that while many people make fun of Trump, he has a point.
“I remember when he took ivermectin or something, and then it was like ivermectin, which won the Nobel Prize, became snake oil? It's not automatically wrong,” Maher said.
Caruso agreed that Donald Trump sounded the right alarm about California's lack of effective brush removal policies. The former Republican mayoral candidate also pointed out that power lines should be buried to prevent wildfires.
“Yes, we need to rebuild quickly, and yes, we need to get people back into their homes,” Caruso told Maher. “But we have to be smart, too, because God bless the Palisades, just like Altadena, and God bless the families there.The Palisades will remain in the fire zone. Please don't build something similar.”
Maher concluded his discussion on wildfires by noting that the city of Sacramento has begun herding goats in wild growth areas to reduce the amount of vegetation that feeds wildfires.
“You know what they did in Sacramento? Goats. Yeah, goats. You put them on a hillside and they eat the plants. And they're cheap, they work cheap,” he said. said.
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