California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) raised issues about the potential of President-elect Trump withholding federal catastrophe assist to the state amid the continued wildfires within the better Los Angeles space.
“He’s done it in Utah. He’s done it in Michigan, did it in Puerto Rico. He did it to California back before I was even governor, in 2018, until he found out folks in Orange County voted for him and he decided to give them money,” Newsom stated in an interview with NBC Information that aired Sunday on “Meet the Press.”
“So he’s been at this for years and years and years. It transcends the states, including, by the way, Georgia, he threatened similarly. So that’s his style. And we take it seriously to the extent that in the past it’s taken a little bit more time [to get federal aid],” he continued.
“I’ve been pretty expressive about that in the context of someone threatening our first responders in terms of supporting the immediacy of their needs.”
Newsom’s feedback come because the president-elect has fiercely criticized the governor’s dealing with of the wildfires and even known as on him to resign final week. Trump has additionally criticized President Biden’s dealing with of the fires from the federal perspective.
Final week Trump accused Newsom of not signing a “water restoration declaration,” which Trump claimed resulted within the redirection of water assets in an effort to guard the endangered Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta’s smelt fish. Newsom’s workplace has stated the declaration doesn’t exist, calling Trump’s declare “pure fiction.”
“I don’t know what he’s referring to when he talks about the Delta smelt in reservoirs. The reservoirs are completely full, the state reservoirs here in Southern California,” Newsom instructed NBC Information in the identical interview.
Final yr on the marketing campaign path, Trump threatened to withhold federal assist to California if it didn’t reinstate his insurance policies from his first administration when he signed a memorandum that redirected water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta towards farmers within the southern a part of the state.
“The water coming here is dead. And Gavin Newsom is going to sign those papers, and if he doesn’t sign those papers, we won’t give him money to put out all his fires, and we don’t give him the money to put out his fires. He’s got problems,” Trump stated in September.
However Trump and his allies have signaled they might be keen to work with California amid the devastating wildfires.
Trump instructed ABC Information that although Newsom “has not done a good job,” he would nonetheless work with him.
“With that being said, I got along well with him — when he was governor, we worked together very well, and we would work together,” Trump stated. “I guess it looks like we’re going to be the one having to rebuild it.”
Vice President-elect JD Vance echoed Trump’s remarks in an interview on Fox Information Sunday.
“No, look, President Trump cares about all Americans, right? He is the president for all Americans,” Vance stated. “And I think that he intends to have FEMA and other federal responses much, much better and much more clued into what’s going on there on the ground.”
Newsom invited Trump to go to California in a letter final week. Vance stated in the identical interview that Trump “would love to visit California.”
