President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday blamed President Joe Biden and California Governor Gavin Newsom for the wildfires raging in Los Angeles that have killed at least five people and forced tens of thousands to evacuate their homes.
“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water recovery declaration presented to him, which would have allowed millions of gallons of water from excessive rain and snowmelt from the north to flow daily into many parts of California, including areas currently on fire. in an almost apocalyptic way,” Trump wrote in one of many posts on his social media platform Truth Social.
He added that Newsom “wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called smelt by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor keep nice, clean, fresh water flowing to CALIFORNIA!
In response, Newsom’s communications director Izzy Gardon accused Trump of “playing politics” as the wildfires continued to wreak havoc in Southern California.
“There is no such document as the water recovery statement – that is pure fiction. The governor is focused on keeping people safe, not playing politics, and ensuring firefighters have all the resources they need,” Gardon said.
Newsom declared a state of emergency Tuesday because of the fires, which left about 400,000 customers without power Wednesday afternoon. Biden issued a major disaster declaration on Wednesday, paving the way for federal aid in the region.
It appears that in talking about a “water recovery declaration,” Trump was referring to a presidential memorandum he signed in early 2020 that aimed to divert water from Northern California to farmland in the central and southern parts of the state.
“[It’s] I will give you lots of water, lots of dam, lots of everything. You will be able to farm your land and you will be able to do things you never thought possible,” Trump said at an event announcing the memo in California in 2020.
On the day of his announcement, Newsom and then-California Attorney General Xavier Becerra denounced Trump’s move, calling it a “harmful attack on our state’s critical ecosystems and environment.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom in Oakland on December 27.
Newsom said, “We will take legal action in the coming days to challenge federal biological views protecting critically endangered fish species that are near extinction.”
Earlier that year, Newsom pledged efforts to double California’s salmon population by 2050 and canceled a plan initiated by former Gov. Jerry Brown that would have added two tunnels to move water from northern parts of the state to the south. to lead.
In the statement on the day of Trump’s 2020 event, Newsom mentioned his goal of balancing the need to move water with the need to conserve endangered species, saying, “Our goal remains achieving enforceable voluntary agreements that provide the best immediate protection for delta species, reliable and safe drinking water and reliable water sources for our farmers for economic prosperity.”
As president and as recently as October, Trump has repeatedly threatened to withhold federal disaster aid for the California wildfires.
“We’re going to take care of your water situation, and we’re going to shove it down his throat. And we’ll say, Gavin, if you don’t do it, we’re not going to give you any of that fire money that we send you all the time for all these fires and wildfires,” Trump said at an event at Coachella. , California, on October 12.
Later Wednesday, Trump again reported on the wildfires, this time with a harsh criticism of Biden.
“NO WATER IN THE FIRE HYDS, NO MONEY IN FEMA. THIS IS WHAT JOE BIDEN LEAVES ME. THANK YOU JOE!” he wrote shortly after Biden attended a briefing in Santa Monica hosted by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, along with Newsom and Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif.
In a separate post, Trump added: “Let this serve and be emblematic of the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the Biden/Newscum Duo. January 20 can’t come soon enough!”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s comments.
Donald Trump at a press conference in Palm Beach, Florida, on December 16.
Trump and his allies spread conspiracy theories about the Federal Emergence Management Agency during the final months of last year’s presidential campaign and in the aftermath of several devastating hurricanes in the South.
The falsehood appeared to merge two FEMA funds: one for disaster relief that cannot legally be used for other reasons, and a Customs and Border Protection fund that FEMA was supposed to distribute to communities receiving an influx of migrants.
At the time, FEMA clarified online: “No funds are being diverted from emergency response needs. FEMA’s disaster response efforts and individual assistance are funded through the Disaster Relief Fund, a special fund for disaster relief efforts.”
Trump also appears to have referred to fire hydrants that ran dry in Los Angeles early Wednesday.
City officials blame the problem on the amount of water firefighters needed in low- and high-altitude areas of the city. They say water pressure dropped in the hilly parts of the city because so much water was being drawn from tanks in lower areas.
Firefighters resorted to using water tenders to ensure they had continuous access to water while water pumps were refilled in high-altitude areas.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
