While Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is taking heavy criticism for her abdication of duty regarding the wildfires ravaging her city, California Gov. Gavin Newsom isn’t escaping either.
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As RedState reported, he showed up on the ground on Wednesday to briefly speak to the press, and there was one line that is going to haunt him for years to come. When asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper about the lack of water to fight the fires, Newsom quickly deflected, claiming that “the local folks are gonna figure that out.”
Despite being surrounded by water, California has no water because their hydrants are dry.
Gavin Newscum’s response: ‘The locals will have to figure it out..’
This is what a total failure of leadership looks like. pic.twitter.com/SyLpTR3EVo
— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellUSA) January 9, 2025
COOPER: What is the situation with water? Obviously, Palisades ran out last night, and the hydrants, I talked to the firefighters on this block, they left because there was no water in the hydrant here.
NEWSOM: I mean, look, local folks are gonna figure that out. I mean, when you have a system that is not dissimilar to what we’ve seen in other large-scale 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, you have something of this scale, but again, that’s going to be determined by the local officials.
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California is the most centrally controlled and planned state in the union. No one can do anything there without the Democrats at the state level giving their blessing. For Newsom to deflect to local officials when pressed on what is a devastating infrastructure failure, when he controls the infrastructure, is his entire political career in a nutshell.
Don’t get me wrong, the local officials, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, are also deeply responsible for the lack of preparedness and response to these fires. Newsom is not a bystander, though. The state that he has led for eight years (and was lieutenant governor of the eight years prior) has failed to build a new reservoir since 1979 despite multiple ballot propositions passed to fund those projects.
During Donald Trump’s first term, he sued the federal government to stop water diversions that would have lessened the dry conditions that led to wildfires. Newsom has wasted hundreds of billions of dollars over the years on boondoggles like “high-speed rail” while bending the knee to environmentalists that have put California in grave danger.
So yeah, Newsom should probably not be deflecting blame as his largest city burns to the ground. Could you imagine Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis showing up in say, Tampa Bay, after a hurricane and passing the buck for a major failure to local officials? Of course, you can’t because he’s a world-class leader who gets things done and has his state prepared at all levels.
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Rest assured, Newsom absolutely wants to run for president in 2028.
https://t.co/3VX7bbWz2M pic.twitter.com/S4hQnp29aa
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) January 9, 2025
Newsom blames everything but his own failed policies
pic.twitter.com/yliVhZFqeC— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) January 9, 2025
Any bid for the presidency by Newsom should be dead on arrival after this. While his list of failures is a mile long, the optics of these fires and his culpability are overwhelming. This guy is the worst state-level politician in the country, and voters should not even consider giving him a promotion to the White House one day. His career should end in disgrace because it is one.
