Some are calling on California Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass to resign following the deadly wildfire in Los Angeles.
On Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump called on Newsom to resign and stated that he is to blame for the wildfire.
“One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning down to the ground,” he wrote on a Truth Social. “It’s ashes, and Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!”
During a press conference on Capitol Hill this week, Trump said “It’s very sad because I’ve been trying to get Gavin Newsom to allow water to come in…they have tremendous water up there but they sent it out to the Pacific [Ocean] because they’re trying to protect a tiny little fish…called the smelt.”
“For the sake of a smelt, they have no water in the fire hydrants today,” he added.
However, Newsom’s office stated that Trump’s claims were baseless.
In a statement, the Democratic governor said, “Trump is conflating two entirely unrelated things: the conveyance of water to Southern California and supply from local storage.”
“And again, there is no such document as the water restoration declaration - this is pure fiction,” the statement continued.
During an interview with CNN, Newsom said, “[Trump] wants to politicize [the wildfires],” however he is choosing not to address it and instead focus his attention on Californians.
Others are calling on Mayor Bass to resign from her post immediately because months before the tragedy, she cut funding for the city’s fire department by $17.6 million dollars. The LA Fire Chief warned that the cut would hamper the department’s ability to respond to large scale emergencies.
In a Dec. 4 memo, Chief Kristin Crowley wrote, “The reduction…has severely limited the department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires.”
Meanwhile, U.S Reps. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) took to X and expressed that the California wildfires serve as a clear indication that politicians need to take climate change seriously.
Crockett wrote that she is “heartbroken [by] the devastation that’s continuously inflicted upon our country & the world.”
“Elected “leaders” are ignorant, impotent, or just incompetent to doing the smart thing, which is to acknowledge that climate change is real & start to solve it,” she added.
Sanders echoed Crockett’s sentiments and released a statement that read, “80,000 people told to evacuate. Blazes 0% contained. Eight months since the area has seen rain.”
“The scale of damage and loss is unimaginable. Climate change is real, not ‘a hoax,’” he added. “Donald Trump must treat this like the existential crisis it is.”
At this time, authorities say at least 5 people have died and more than 100 thousand have been ordered to evacuate Los Angeles as the fire spreads across the city damaging homes, schools, churches and businesses.
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