California Gov. Gavin Newsom punted any responsibility for the lack of water in LA's fire hydrants as merely a problem that "locals are gonna have to figure out," completely avoiding any culpability for his own administration's policies that have left the state's reservoirs low and its fire response unable to cope with the massive blaze now engulfing the city's beachfront suburbs.
"What is the situation with the water, obviously, in the Palisades ran out last night in the hydrants? I was talking to a firefighter last night in this block, they left because there was no water in the hydrant here,” CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked a clearly uncomfortable Newsom Wednesday, as flames openly blazed in the structures behind him.
“Yeah, look. Local folks are gonna have to figure that out. I mean, just…where you have a system but it’s not dissimilar to what we see with other extraordinarily largescale fires, whether it be pipe or electricity or whether it just be the complete overwhelm of the system. I mean, those hydrants are typical for two or three fires, maybe one fire, but when you have something this scale…”
California governor Gavin Newsom is asked why the fire hydrants have no water. Says he doesn’t know, local people will have to figure it out. California “leadership” is a disgrace: pic.twitter.com/fyyaupAyvZ
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) January 9, 2025
Incoming President Donald Trump, who was sounding the alarm months ago over California’s worsening water availability thanks to the state’s pumping water to the Pacific Ocean in a failed attempt to save an endangered fish, placed the blame for empty hydrants squarely on state officials and Newsom, pointing to reservoirs in the southern part of the state left partially empty despite historic rainfall the year before.
Related: 400+ Acres Of MI Forest To Be Cleared For Solar Panels To Help Meet ‘Climate Goal’
“He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt…but didn’t care about the people of California,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday, promising that his incoming administration will “demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA!”
At the same time California was rerouting water to the ocean to save the smelt, Mayor Karen Bass, who was in Ghana for their president's inauguration ceremony when heredity erupted in flames Tuesday, is now under fire for having cut nearly $18 million from the LA Fire Department last year.
But I'm sure climate change is entirely to blame here - not gross incompetence and a total failure of leadership.
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Going Green? 400 acres of Michigan forest set to be cleared to build solar panels to meet their “climate goal.”
— MRCTV (@mrctv) January 9, 2025
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