When catastrophic disasters like the Los Angeles wildfires occur, it’s usually a time to put politics aside and turn our efforts to help those in need. This country has a history of elected officials, first responders, and everyday civilians coming together to help the victims and their families of these horrific events. We witnessed this after 9/11, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and previous man-made and natural disasters throughout our history. It is one of the benchmarks that make the United States a great country.
But with the LA fires, a new version of politics has reared its ugly head. Instead of offering universal support, it has replaced decency and goodwill with targeting public figures as responsible parties and playing the political blame game. In this current environment, it’s not only the stench of the fires that is making people sick but also the stench of bad politics.
Ugly Politics
When a mass shooting occurs, we are chastised by our conservative friends that it is too early to speak of gun control, and instead, we should turn our attention to helping and supporting the survivors and their families and mourning the loss of loved ones. Leave politics out of it for the time being. But shortly after the California fires started, our president-elect started his own fire with politically charged comments regarding a water contract that never existed.
Mr. Trump told the nation that Governor Gavin Newsom of California refused to sign a water restoration declaration that he said would have directed millions of gallons of water to burning areas, saying that he prioritized smelt fish over residents’ safety. To this, Gov. Newsom correctly replied that no such agreement existed. Trump was perhaps confused by his 2019 proposal to redirect water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to Central California farms and urban areas in Southern California.
A lawsuit by state officials and environmental groups squashed this proposal because it would endanger wildlife in the Delta. However, President Joe Biden and Newsom proposed new regulations that would allow more water to be pulled from the Delta to Southern California while also protecting local wildlife. Mark Gold, water scarcity director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, refuted Trump’s claim that his proposed changes could have mitigated the wildfires. Gold, a member of the Metropolitan Water District Board that provides water to people in Southern California, told CBS News, “The issues have nothing to do with what amount of water we have stored within the region. The Metropolitan Water District has a record amount of water stored now.”
Climate change and minimal rain since early May dried up vegetation, making it much more of a fire hazard. And Los Angeles fire hydrants, overtaxed by round-the-clock fire fighting, could not keep up with demand. Janisse Quiñones, head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said at a news conference that three million gallons of water were available when the Palisades fire started, but demand was four times greater than “we’ve ever seen in the system.”
Speaking of politics, Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, echoing Trump, said that Gov. Newsom may be “criminally responsible” for the wildfires tearing through Los Angeles County. And what would Greene know about wildfires? Perhaps she should pay closer attention to her home state, which was the seventh-ranked state in the U.S. for wildfires last year.
Have You Heard This Before
Unfortunately, this is not the first time Trump has played politics with disaster aid. According to Trump’s senior director for resilience policy in his first term, Mark Harvey, the former president did not want to send federal aid in response to the California wildfires of 2018. Trump only relented when Harvey pointed out to him the strong support for the president in Orange County.
When Hurricane Michael slammed the panhandle of Florida in 2019, Trump sent aid immediately after Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis asked for federal assistance. Contrast that with earlier in that same year, when Trump threatened to veto a bill from Congress that would have paid 100% of the costs to the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico after the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria.
And you may recall just this past October when Trump again played politics with disaster aid when he falsely accused President Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris of ignoring Republican areas during the Hurricane Helene crisis. Some of his claims included that the president was ignoring Georgia Republican Gov Brian Kemp’s call for help and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was without money due to a transfer of funds to house undocumented migrants.
Trump and his vice-presidential running mate, JD Vance, also stated that the federal government was limiting disaster aid to $750 for people who had lost their homes in the hurricane and its aftermath. Republican leaders from Georgia and Tennessee quickly rebuffed these comments.
Leave Politics Out of Disaster Aid
When all of the fires have been doused, the victims treated for mental and physical injuries, and there has been sufficient time to mourn those who perished, there will be time to explore the cause and spread of the fires. There is debate about whether Los Angeles’ fire department budget received an overall budget cut prior to the disaster. And certainly, Southern California Electric will be questioned about the age and flammability of their power lines. These issues should be investigated in-depth and thoroughly.
But it’s time to set partisan politics aside when administering disaster aid. Not only can these comments be false and misleading, but there are lives in the balance that are affected by these debates.
