The feud between President-elect Trump and California Governor Gavin Newsom (Democratic) has reached a new peak as wildfires rage in Los Angeles.
Trump called on Newsom to resign, but the governor fired back at him for politicizing a disaster.
Considering the interests of both parties, and the fact that neither side is inclined to back down from the fight, the debate seems certain to continue.
Trump continued to call Newsom derogatory nicknames, writing on social media Wednesday night: It's ashes, Gavin Newscombe should resign. This is all his fault! ! ! ”
Newsom also spoke with CNN's Anderson Cooper on Wednesday night and criticized President Trump's belligerent rhetoric.
“People are literally fleeing. People have lost their lives. Children have lost their schools. Families have been completely torn apart. Churches have been burned down,” Newsom said, referring to President Trump. “This man tried to politicize the church,” he added.
Newsom also negatively compared President Trump's approach to President Biden's.
“Today I was proud to stand next to the President of the United States and to be with Joe Biden. And he had the support of everyone in this community. There wasn’t,” Newsom said.
Biden canceled a planned trip to Italy to direct the federal government's response to the ongoing disaster in the Los Angeles area.
On Thursday afternoon, Mr. Biden held a briefing on wildfires, with Vice President Harris in attendance.
Biden told Californians: we're not going anywhere. ”
The president, who was in Los Angeles on Wednesday for reasons initially unrelated to the wildfires, has already approved a major disaster declaration that could speed up aid.
On Thursday, he announced that the federal government would financially support California's wildfire response efforts for 180 days. Trump will either be obligated to comply with the measure or find some basis for breaking it when he takes office on January 20th.
“We're doing literally everything at the federal level,” Biden said.
The administration also provided five large air tankers, 10 firefighting helicopters and “dozens” of fire engines to help extinguish the blaze, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House.
In his remarks Thursday, Biden addressed one of the most frequently voiced criticisms of the fire response: a water shortage that left some fire hydrants dry.
Mr. Trump and other Republicans have placed varying degrees of responsibility on Mr. Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) in this regard.
Biden said the problem was in large part due to utility companies shutting off power to prevent further fires, which reduced the ability to get water to fire hydrants.
Los Angeles officials previously outlined additional factors. Wildfires are most effectively extinguished from the air, with aircraft dropping large amounts of water and flame retardant to extinguish the flames. However, strong winds have forced planes to land at critical times, creating a huge demand for water from fire hydrants instead.
The final source of that water, three tanks with a capacity of about 1 million gallons each, were filled as a preparatory measure before the fire broke out, city officials said.
“Shooting firefights with multiple fire hydrants pumping water for hours on end is unsustainable,” Los Angeles County Public Works Director Mark Pestrella said at a news conference this week. This is a well-known fact. ”
President Trump went after Newsom over the water crisis, writing on social media Thursday that he should “go to Northern California immediately and open water mains.”
In a post the day before, President Trump said Newsom had “a water bill before him that will allow millions of gallons of water from excess rain and snowmelt from the north to flow into many areas each day.” He refused to sign the Declaration of Recovery.” of california. ”
But some experts are highly skeptical of President Trump's claims. Kurt Schwabe, a professor of environmental economics and policy at the University of California, Riverside, said the idea of bringing water from Northern California to the Los Angeles area “wouldn't have made a huge difference” in the disaster, according to The Hill's Sharon. -Told Udashin.
Mr. Newsom's office declared that Mr. Trump's other reference, the “water restoration declaration,” is “complete fiction.”
The broader claim appears to refer to water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. However, most of Los Angeles' water comes from other sources.
The larger political context may be the most prominent factor behind the Trump-Newsom feud.
The two sides have clashed repeatedly over the years. Mr. Newsom, a leading candidate for the 2028 Democratic nomination, in December asked the California Legislature to provide an additional 2,500 dollars to help state agencies fight Mr. Trump's second-term agenda in court. Requested funding of $1,000.
Meanwhile, their battle will become even more intense.
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.
Additional reporting: Sharon Udasin, Alex Gangitano
