House Speaker <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mike-johnson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mike Johnson</a> (R-LA) shamed California Governor Gavin Newsom after the governor posted a video attacking the Republican speaker over potential federal aid California may receive.
“Instead of making highly produced clap back videos with social media influencers, you should get to work helping Californians,” Johnson replied to Newsom on X. “You’re the leader of a state in crisis, and you should finally start acting like it.”
The comment came in reply to a video Newsom had posted in an attempt to embarrass Johnson and other congressional Republicans. GOP lawmakers have floated conditional aid for California to help cover the cost of recent wildfires that have destroyed thousands of homes. The conditions would mandate some improvements to California wildfire preparedness, such as cleaning out dead brush in high-risk areas and building more water infrastructure.
“Never in California questioned whether or not we as taxpayers in the largest state in the Union should support the people of Louisiana at a time of emergency and need. We never conditioned it,” Newsom says in the video.
“A state with millions and millions of Trump supporters, Speaker Johnson and Mr. President-elect. Millions of your supporters are out here. They need your help. They need your empathy. They need your care, whatever compassion you can express as opposed to condemnation,” he says.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Instead of making highly produced clap back videos with social media influencers, you should get to work helping Californians. 
You’re the leader of a state in crisis, and you should finally start acting like it. <a href="https://t.co/ipKHFse0kU">https://t.co/ipKHFse0kU</a>
&mdash; Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1879995378201948397?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
While Trump and Johnson have not condemned Californians over the deadly Los Angeles County fires, they have been critical of state and local officials for the failure to protect Los Angeles communities from the wildfires.
Trump said in a Truth Social <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113793724958051185">post</a> earlier this month that Newsom “refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.”
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“He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster!” Trump said.
Johnson was similarly critical of California leadership in comments this week.
“Obviously, there has been water resource management, forest management, mistakes, all sorts of problems, and it does come down to leadership, and it appears to us that state and local leaders were derelict in their duty, and in many respects,” Johnson <a href="https://www.scrippsnews.com/us-news/california-wildfires/house-speaker-mike-johnson-says-there-should-be-conditions-on-federal-wildfire-aid-for-california" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> when talking about strings that may be attached to federal aid to California. “So, that’s something that has to be factored in.”

Mike Johnson, Gavin Newsom

‘Get To Work Helping Californians’: Johnson Slams Newsom After CA Gov Complains About Wildfire Aid

California

Congress

Gavin Newsom

Los Angeles

Mike Johnson

Politics

Comedian and HBO host <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/bill-maher" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bill Maher</a> laid into Governor Gavin Newsom during a recent TMZ interview, arguing that if California leadership could cut through oppressive regulations and &#8220;red tape,&#8221; they should have done so before the southern part of the state had burned to the ground.
Maher argued that it wasn&#8217;t really a Left or Right issue, but one of accountability, telling TMZ hosts Harvey Levin and Charles Latibeaudiere that he&#8217;d had previous run-ins with California&#8217;s extensive building regulations when he had tried to install a shed and some solar panels on his own property.
&#8220;I always think there’s a middle of the road, actual practical solution to everything and for this I would say, was California’s uber progressive politics the cause of this fire? Of course not. Did it impede them to some degree? Absolutely. That’s the margin of error that I’m saying we can’t abide by anymore,&#8221; Maher explained.
WATCH:
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The comedian, who had previously detailed his own difficulties with the state&#8217;s excessive red tape on his own show — HBO&#8217;s &#8220;Real Time&#8221; — said that he was in favor of holding all government officials accountable.
&#8220;Now, as far as the red tape, I see that they’re all — Newsom, Bass — they’re all saying, we’re going to cut red tape, as if they’re doing us a favor,&#8221; Maher continued. &#8220;My question is, well, if you can do it now, why didn’t you always do it? Obviously, it can be done. It’s not a favor to us to cut the red tape. Why do we live in this state, in this red tape nightmare the other times of the year when we’re not on fire?&#8221;
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Newsom announced that he would slash red tape for residents who chose to rebuild in the aftermath of the devastating fires, and also promised to prosecute any developers who attempted to sweep in and buy up the land.
Toward that end, the Democrat governor signed an <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/01/14/governor-newsom-issues-order-to-protect-fire-victims-from-predatory-real-estate-speculators/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive order</a> on Tuesday &#8220;barring opportunist and predatory investors from making unsolicited undervalue offers to families impacted by the firestorms to buy their land, taking advantage by offering fast cash for destroyed property.&#8221;

Bill Maher

Bill Maher Unloads On Newsom, Demands To Know Why He Didn’t Cut Red Tape ‘When We Were Not On Fire’

Bill Maher Unloads On Newsom, Demands To Know Why He Didn't Cut Red Tape 'When We Were Not On Fire'

Karen Bass

Media

Wildfires

California Democratic Gov. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/gavin-newsom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gavin Newsom</a> will order U.S. flags to be raised to full-staff on Inauguration Day as President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office.
Newsom joins Republican governors around the country who have said that U.S. flags in their states will be raised to full-staff for the inauguration. Izzy Gardon, a spokesman for Newsom, confirmed to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/gavin-newsom-flag-trump-inauguration-02a521a422b128b71b8e8cac4f02e3dd" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Associated Press</a> on Wednesday that the governor will direct the raising of the American flags on Monday.
Following the death of former President Jimmy Carter on December 29, U.S. flags will fly at half-staff for 30 days. Republican Governors Ron DeSantis (FL), Greg Abbott (TX), Kay Ivey (AL), Bill Lee (TN), Kim Reynolds (IA), and Kelly Armstrong (ND) announced earlier this week that U.S. flags in their states will be raised on January 20 and then lowered again to half-staff on January 21. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/speaker-johnson-orders-flags-at-u-s-capitol-to-fly-at-full-staff-for-trumps-inauguration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ordered</a> U.S. flags at the Capitol to be raised on Inauguration Day.
Earlier this month, Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-says-dems-are-giddy-about-american-flag-being-flown-at-half-staff-during-inauguration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said,</a> &#8220;Nobody wants to see&#8221; the American flag at half-staff during the inauguration, adding, &#8220;no American can be happy about it. Let&#8217;s see how it plays out.&#8221; The president-elect also blasted Democrats who he said were &#8220;giddy about our magnificent American Flag potentially being at ‘half mast’ during my Inauguration.&#8221;
&#8220;They think it’s so great, and are so happy about it because, in actuality, they don’t love our Country, they only think about themselves. Look at what they’ve done to our once GREAT America over the past four years – It’s a total mess!&#8221; he wrote on Truth Social.
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Newsom&#8217;s decision to join Republican politicians in ordering flags to be raised to full-staff comes as he faces intense criticism from Republicans, including Trump, on his handling of the state&#8217;s wildfire prevention after fires erupted across Southern California last week.
Last week, Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113793724958051185" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused</a> Newsom of refusing &#8220;to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way.&#8221; Newsom shot back, saying Trump&#8217;s criticisms are &#8220;incomprehensible to anyone that understands water policy in the state,&#8221; NBC News <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/newsom-slams-trump-disinformation-california-wildfires-rcna187301" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.

Gavin Newsom To Order That U.S. Flags Be Raised For Trump Inauguration

American Flag

Donald Trump

Elections

Inauguration

Filmmaker Justine Bateman warned that California Governor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/gavin-newsom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gavin Newsom</a> needs to be removed immediately following the disaster of the fires in Los Angeles “before something worse happens&#8221; in the state.
In a post on <a href="https://x.com/JustineBateman/status/1879389040085983501">X</a>, the 58-year-old actress called on voters in the Golden State to watch how insincere Newsom appeared in a video of him talking about working with President-elect Donald Trump to provide resources to those affected by the Southern California fires, while at the same he has set aside tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to fight Trump.
“I really want other CA voters to see the lack of sincerity, the dismissiveness, the dedication to pretentiousness, and the dereliction of care for the citizens of California,” Bateman wrote. “He has always demonstrated this. In every video.”
“You cannot trust this kind of person with any role, and especially not one upon which our wellbeing depends,” she added. “Gavin Newsom needs to be removed, before something worse happens here.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I really want other CA voters to see the lack of sincerity, the dismissiveness, the dedication to pretentiousness, and the dereliction of care for the citizens of California. He has always demonstrated this. In every video. 
You cannot trust this kind of person with any role, and… <a href="https://t.co/tvO977cWKn">https://t.co/tvO977cWKn</a>
— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JustineBateman/status/1879389040085983501?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
In an earlier <a href="https://x.com/JustineBateman/status/1879674563979608465">post</a>, Bateman said not only should Newsom be replaced, but Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, too, following the mismanagement of the city’s resources, which led to the disaster of the three fires in LA.
“We already knew that the city and state was being mismanaged, before these fire disasters,” the filmmaker said.
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“This will only get worse. I am not willing to find out how unprepared the city and state is for a major earthquake, structure-destroying mudslides, water system poisonings, power grid collapses, or any of the other things that could befall us here,” she added. “We have all the demonstration[s] we need to want something different.”
The actress’ comments were similar to ones she made during her appearance with <a href="https://x.com/JesseBWatters/status/1877528141951840593">Jesse Watters on Fox News</a>.
“If you are going to run a city or run a state, you have to take care of the basics, and that’s make sure that your fire and your police department are well funded,” Bateman said, noting that it includes being prepared for when disasters occur in the area like fire, earthquake, rain, and the mudslides afterward.
“If you are not doing everything you can to [mitigate disasters] if they arise, then get out,” she added. “You are useless to us. If you can’t cover the basics, get out of our city. You are useless to us, you are a liability and you have destroyed people’s lives because you didn’t do your job.”
“You didn’t do what we paid you for and you should resign out of shame and responsibility for the people whose lives you’ve destroyed right now,” Bateman continued.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/patricia-heaton-blows-up-on-la-mayor-as-fires-rage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Patricia Heaton Blows Up On LA Mayor As Fires Rage</a>

Justine Bateman

Filmmaker Justine Bateman Warns Newsom Has To Be Removed ‘Before Something Worse Happens’

Celebrities

Entertainment

Hollywood

U.S.

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/los-angeles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Los Angeles</a> helicopter reporter Chris Cristi’s aerial video he posted on social media showed nearly an entire town in southern California destroyed in one of the multiple wildfires in Los Angeles.
In a clip posted on <a href="https://x.com/abc7chriscristi/status/1879328008450011596">X</a> that has since gone viral, the ABC7 reporter wrote that, “This is the closest aerial view I’ve been able to capture yet of almost the entire town of Altadena, CA. There are no words… #EatonFire.”
The video showed an overview of rows and rows of homes, as far as the eyes could see, in the town completely destroyed with little more than burnt palm trees left standing on each of the properties in a city of 42,000.
It is truly hard to estimate exactly how many lots shown on the video were wiped out in the San Gabriel Valley town, north of Pasadena.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
THIS is the closest aerial view I’ve been able to capture yet of almost the entire town of Altadena, CA. There are no words… <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EatonFire?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EatonFire</a> <a href="https://t.co/uNX54XJUUL">pic.twitter.com/uNX54XJUUL</a>
— Chris Cristi (@abc7chriscristi) <a href="https://twitter.com/abc7chriscristi/status/1879328008450011596?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
Three fires in the area &#8212; Palisades Fire, Eaton Fire, and Hurst Fire &#8212; quickly spread last week thanks to the high speed Santa Ana winds leading to the evacuations of tens of thousands. It has wiped out some 7,000 structures and burned up 14,000 acres in Altadena and Pasadena alone, <a href="https://ktla.com/news/california/wildfires/palisades-eaton-wildfire-damage-maps/">KTLA reported</a>.
As of Wednesday, officials said the fire is 45% contained, but they warn that they are still on high alert as more strong winds are expected in the area that has very dry conditions, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/eaton-fire-containment-altadena-strong-winds/">CBS</a> reported.
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The Palisades fire has scorched some 23,000 acres and destroyed 10,000 structures, the outlet noted. A map from KTLA showed the homes destroyed. The ones completely wiped out are in red in the map that can be seen <a href="https://ktla.com/news/california/wildfires/palisades-eaton-wildfire-damage-maps/">here</a>.
“Today’s efforts are focused on mop up and reinforcing containment lines to ensure perimeter control,” an incident report from California Fire read. “Hazard trees along roadways are being mitigated to protect both firefighters and the public.”
“The fire is expected to remain within its current footprint, with aircraft continuing to support firefighters with retardant drops in inaccessible terrain,” it added. “As repopulation efforts progress, the focus remains on ensuring that people are brought back into a safe and secure environment. Contingency resources are strategically prepositioned and ready to respond throughout communities along the fire’s western edge to due to the Santa Ana wind conditions.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/anna-faris-adam-brody-mandy-moore-become-latest-celebs-to-lose-homes-in-socal-fires" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Anna Faris, Adam Brody, Mandy Moore Become Latest Celebs To Lose Homes In SoCal Fires</a>

California fires

LA Reporter’s Aerial Video Shows Near-Entire Town Destroyed In SoCal Fires

LA Reporter’s Aerial Video Shows Near Entire Town Destroyed In SoCal Fires

Fires

Natural Disaster

Actor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/actor-michael-rapaport-signals-shift-on-trump-after-years-of-fervent-opposition-my-political-views-have-changed">Michael Rapaport</a> torched California Gov. Gavin Newsom for the Los Angeles wildfires after Newsom turned his focus on making the state “Trump-proof” ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
In a lengthy rant on <a href="https://x.com/MichaelRapaport/status/1879152133582598389">X</a>, the 54-year-old actor called on Newsom to resign and said the governor was done in the state following the devastation of the three fires in Southern California.
“You thought you were going to be president,” Rapaport blasted. “You’re never, ever, ever gonna be president, Gavin with the good hair. I don’t care how slicked back it is … little Nancy [Pelosi’s] little nephew.”
&#8220;Gavin with the good hair, you have overseen two of the most important cities in California and you’ve ran them, nose-dived into the ground,” he added. “San Francisco is apocalyptic. I’ve been there; I’ve seen it with my own eyes. You ran that gorgeous, iconic, totally unique American city into the ground. It’s a dump pot, a cesspool.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Gavin with the good hair Newsom 
aka Nancy’s Nephew blew it, there’s no learning curve, resign <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GavinNewsom?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GavinNewsom</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CaliforniaWildfires?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CaliforniaWildfires</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/iamrapaport?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@iamrapaport</a> <a href="https://t.co/eTFHA7diwh">pic.twitter.com/eTFHA7diwh</a>
— MichaelRapaport (@MichaelRapaport) <a href="https://twitter.com/MichaelRapaport/status/1879152133582598389?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
“And you turned Los Angeles … you let Los Angeles turn into a dump hole also,” Rapaport continued, calling the city “dirty” and full of homeless people. “The crime, the catch and release in California, and now these, the Los Angeles fires, you were woefully and pathetically unprepared for. And you keep talking, ‘We need to learn from our mistakes.’ Get the f*** out of here. There’s no more mistakes for you; you’re done!&#8221;
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The Hollywood star said Newsom has been talking about making the state “Trump-proof” when he should’ve been &#8220;fire-proofing California.”
&#8220;You’re talking about Trump this, Trump that. He’s not even president,&#8221; Rapaport blasted. “This is on you. This is on you. You’re the governor … you’re done.&#8221;
The comments were the latest from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/completely-unacceptable-celebrities-slam-ca-leadership-as-fires-rage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">celebrities who have been blowing up</a> on Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass following the multiple fires that have nearly destroyed whole towns due to days of out-of-control blazes.
Actress <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/patricia-heaton">Patricia Heaton</a> recently called out both Newsom and Bass for the devastation in L.A.
“We have a mayor who cut the budget of the fire department in California by over $17 million dollars,” Heaton said in a video posted on <a href="https://x.com/PatriciaHeaton/status/1877112025207419073">X</a>. “Fire is the biggest hazard in Los Angeles. Why would you cut that budget? There was no water in the fire hydrants in the Palisades.”
“The people running the show just decimated [CA]. Drugs, homelessness with mentally ill people on the streets, crime … taxes. What do you pay all these taxes for to see your neighborhood go up in smoke?” she added.
“It is so enraging,” the actress continued. “That they took one of the most beautiful states, maybe the most beautiful state in the union and just continue to destroy it. Gavin Newsom standing there with his hands in his pockets … I just really feel for everybody there.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/patricia-heaton-blows-up-on-la-mayor-as-fires-rage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Patricia Heaton Blows Up On LA Mayor As Fires Rage</a>

Premiere Of Showtime’s “White Famous” – Arrivals

Michael Rapaport Torches Newsom For SoCal Fires After Gov Focuses On ‘Trump-Proofing’ State

Michael Rapaport

Patricia Heaton

Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of The Los Angeles Times, said during an interview this week that it was a &#8220;mistake&#8221; for the newspaper to have endorsed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/karen-bass" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Karen Bass</a> to be the city&#8217;s mayor.
Soon-Shiong made the remarks during an interview with 2Way&#8217;s Sean Spicer following the severe backlash that Bass has faced over the last week in the wake of the wildfires that erupted, causing $50+ billion in damage.
Spicer asked Soon-Shiong how much blame should be placed on Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom as the catastrophic fires continue to rage.
&#8220;Well, first of all, we&#8217;ll accept some blame,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So at the L.A. Times, we endorsed Karen Bass. I think right now in front, that&#8217;s a mistake and we admit that.&#8221;
&#8220;So I thought it was very early, important early on for me to come out,&#8221; he continued.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
LA Times owner <a href="https://twitter.com/DrPatSoonShiong?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DrPatSoonShiong</a> says it was a “mistake” for his paper to endorse Karen Bass for Mayor in 2022.
“Competence matters,” he says.<a href="https://t.co/0NJeZgXekD">pic.twitter.com/0NJeZgXekD</a>
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) <a href="https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1878836756965138487?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
In a series of posts on X, Soon-Shiong repeatedly hammered home the issue of competency.
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&#8220;Maybe the lesson we learned out of this catastrophe in California is to now vote not based on left or right or D versus R but perhaps based on competent or no experience in operating a job!!&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;We have to elect based on competence…yes competence matters.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Maybe the lesson we learned out of this catastrophe in California is to now vote not based on left or right or D versus R but perhaps based on competent or no experience in operating a job !! We have to elect based on competence…yes competence matters.
— Dr. Pat Soon-Shiong (@DrPatSoonShiong) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrPatSoonShiong/status/1877569001322123528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2025</a></blockquote>

Inside The JPMorgan Healthcare Conference

LA Times Owner: It Was A ‘Mistake’ To Endorse Karen Bass

Los Angeles Times

As some of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/it-looks-like-a-war-zone-aerial-view-shows-devastation-caused-by-fire-in-pacific-palisades" target="_blank" rel="noopener">most destructive fires</a> in Los Angeles County history continue to rage, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Democrat-controlled state legislature on Sunday agreed to set aside $50 million to fight the Trump administration and defend illegal immigrants.
The vote on the deal could take place as soon as this week — before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office next Monday, according to POLITICO. California Republicans slammed Newsom and the Democrats for focusing on fighting Trump while fires continue to burn in Southern California.
The deal, first proposed by Newsom immediately after Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in November, came out of a special session that began on December 2. The deal sets aside $25 million to fund the California Department of Justice&#8217;s fight against the Trump administration in court and $25 million to shield illegal immigrants from deportations, detention, and wage theft, POLITICO <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/13/newsom-california-democrats-trump-legal-fights-00197784" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
“This funding agreement cements California’s readiness to serve as a bulwark against Trump’s extremist agenda,” said Senate Budget Chair Scott Wiener.
In a November <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/07/newsom-california-legislative-session-trump-resistance-00188119" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> announcing the special session, Newsom said, “The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack — and we won’t sit idle.&#8221;
Republicans have called for a special session to focus solely on the response to the fires, and Newsom, during an appearance on the Left-leaning podcast, &#8220;Pod Save America,&#8221; said he is “happy to do whatever moves the needle forward.”
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Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher blasted Newsom&#8217;s deal with state Democrats, saying in a statement, “At a time when California should be laser focused on responding to the devastating wildfires in LA, Democrat lawmakers’ priority is creating a $50 million slush fund to hire government lawyers for hypothetical fights against the federal government and to defend criminal illegal immigrants from being returned to their home countries.”
California Senate Democrats pushed for funding to help illegal immigrants as Trump has vowed to carry out mass deportations upon taking office. Since the 1980s, California has held the highest number of illegal immigrants among any state. According to Pew Research <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/22/what-we-know-about-unauthorized-immigrants-living-in-the-us/#:~:text=The%20six%20states%20with%20the,California%20(1.8%20million)" target="_blank" rel="noopener">numbers</a> from 2022, California&#8217;s illegal immigrant population sits at around 1.8 million, which is nearly 200,000 more than Texas.
“Senate Democrats are particularly proud to provide funding for providers of legal aid services, which know our communities’ needs best and are best positioned to defend at scale the millions of individuals and families that will be impacted by the incoming Administration’s extreme agenda,” state Sen. Wiener added.

Newsom, California Dems Reach $50M Deal To Fight Trump As L.A. Burns

Democrats

Executive

Illegal Immigration

California Governor Gavin Newsom passed the buck when asked during an interview over the weekend if the &#8220;buck stops&#8221; with him in relation to the state&#8217;s poor response to the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.
Newsom, who <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/01/11/us-news/california-gov-gavin-newsom-cut-100m-for-fire-prevention-before-deadly-wildfires-report/">cut $100 million</a> from California&#8217;s fire prevention budget, made the remarks during an interview that aired Sunday on NBC News&#8217; &#8220;Meet The Press&#8221; when asked about the investigation that he ordered into why there were water supply issues.
He said that he wants the investigation to answer the question of &#8220;What the hell happened? What happened to the water system?&#8221;
He suggested that they could have run out of water due to the amount of water being used or that there would have been a problem with &#8220;pipes&#8221; or &#8220;electricity.&#8221;
&#8220;I want to know those facts,&#8221; he claimed. &#8220;I want them objectively determined, and let the chips fall where they may.&#8221;
Newsom then tried to deflect blame, saying: &#8220;This is not about finger pointing.&#8221;
When asked if he was launching the investigation to deflect blame off himself, Newsom responded: &#8220;I&#8217;m not, how could it be when we&#8217;re doing an independent investigation and we just want the adjudication of the facts?&#8221;
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&#8220;As I say, it&#8217;s not about finger pointing,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s about answering the questions you and everybody wants answered.&#8221;
When asked point blame if &#8220;the buck stop with you,&#8221; Newsom did not answer the question and instead claimed that people were trying to &#8220;take cheap political shots&#8221; at him.
&#8220;Well, I mean, you&#8217;re governor of California. You might as well be the mayor of California,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We&#8217;re all in this together. We&#8217;re all better off when we&#8217;re all better off, and we&#8217;re all better off when we&#8217;re working together to take care of people and to make sure people are supported.&#8221;
&#8220;We&#8217;re empathetic,&#8221; he claimed. &#8220;And we&#8217;re here not just in the immediacy of the crisis, but we&#8217;re here after the crisis, as opposed to creating a crisis in the middle of this by trying to divide people and play political, take cheap political shots.&#8221;
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Gov. Newsom says L.A. wildfires could be worst natural disaster in U.S. history: Full interview" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ekEMq5dVZb0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Press conference of California Governor Gavin Newsom

Newsom On If ‘Buck Stops’ With Him: ‘This Is Not About Finger Pointing’

Vice President-elect <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/jd-vance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JD Vance</a> condemned the &#8220;serious lack of competent governance&#8221; in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/california" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California</a> as firefighters in the Democrat-led state try to fend off <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/wildfires" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wildfires</a> that have devastated places around the city of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/los-angeles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Los Angeles</a> over the past week.
During an <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6366992399112" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> on &#8220;Fox News Sunday,&#8221; anchor Shannon Bream said she wanted to discuss the emergency situation in Southern California — in which thousands of homes have been <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os9iX__0h-o" target="_blank" rel="noopener">destroyed</a> by the wind-fueled blazes and at least 14 people <a href="https://x.com/elex_michaelson/status/1878476396441276649" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have been killed</a> — because Vance and President-elect <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> will soon be sworn into office.
&#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/gavin-newsom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gavin Newsom</a>, the governor of California, has written to President Trump saying, let&#8217;s not be divisive right now, come out and visit, let people see us working together. Any indication the president-elect may do that?&#8221; Bream asked.
&#8220;Well, I know the president would love to visit California. And first of all, you know, our hearts go out to everybody who has been affected by the storms. I&#8217;ve seen some of these videos of people where, you know, folks who have lived in those homes for 25, 30, 35 years, and everything is gone. And whatever your political affiliation, it&#8217;s hard not to see those images and just be heartbroken for our fellow Americans who are going through a very tough time,&#8221; Vance said.
&#8220;And I do think, frankly, the federal government has to do a better job. President Trump is committed to doing a better job when it comes to disaster relief,&#8221; he added. &#8220;That&#8217;s true for the hurricane victims and flood victims in North Carolina. It&#8217;s true for the fire victims in California. We just — we have to do a better job. We need competent good governance. Now that doesn&#8217;t mean you can&#8217;t criticize the governor of California for, I think, some very bad decisions over a very long period of time.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Vice President-elect <a href="https://twitter.com/JDVance?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JDVance</a>: First of all, our hearts go out to everybody who’s been affected… Frankly, the federal government has to do a better job. President Trump has committed to doing a better job when it comes to disaster relief… We need competent, good governance.… <a href="https://t.co/IAACDCvJJA">pic.twitter.com/IAACDCvJJA</a>
&mdash; Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1878452586740662327?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 12, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Vance added: &#8220;I mean, some of these reservoirs have been dry for 15, 20 years. The fire hydrants are being <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/news-anchor-claims-l-a-firefighters-arent-out-of-water-reporter-immediately-contradicts-him" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported as going dry</a> while the firefighters are trying to put out these fires. There is a serious lack of competent governance in California. And I think it&#8217;s part of the reason why these fires have gotten so bad. We need to do a better job at both the state and federal level.&#8221;
Bream then noted there are &#8220;skeptics&#8221; concerned about what the Trump-Vance administration will do when it comes to giving aid to California.
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&#8220;They&#8217;re citing back to something that the president-elect said in September when he <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-newsom-wildfire-los-angeles-california-hydrants-water-3d20474ceb25f163adff4456a54efbf2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, &#8216;We won&#8217;t give him money to put out all his fires, and if we don&#8217;t give him the money to put out his fires, he&#8217;s got problems.&#8217; Is there any consideration of withholding aid to Californians?&#8221; she asked.
&#8220;Hey, look, President Trump cares about all Americans, right? He is the president for all Americans,&#8221; Vance replied. &#8220;And I think that he intends to have FEMA and other federal responses much, much better and much more clued in to what&#8217;s going on there on the ground. You know, President Biden has been asleep at the wheel for a number of different crises. And I think this — this the final California fire, as it&#8217;s really going — getting out of control in Biden&#8217;s last week and a half, I do think it drives home, just again, we&#8217;ve had incompetent governance for so long.&#8221;
He continued:  &#8220;You know, President Trump often says that the coalition that made him the president was just a common-sense coalition. There are conservatives, there are moderates, there are even a few liberals, but the thing that united us is just this basic idea that, yes, government should be smaller but when government does the things that should do, it ought to do them well. And that&#8217;s one of the things that President Trump and I are going to fight to get back to.&#8221;

Vice President-Elect JD Vance Visits “Fox News Sunday”

Vance Rips ‘Serious Lack Of Competent Governance’ In California As Wildfires Destroy LA Area

JD Vance

There&#8217;s now a very noticeable pattern that plays out every time we witness a colossal failure on the national stage. It happened after the Secret Service allowed Donald Trump to get shot in the head in Pennsylvania. It happened after Harvard&#8217;s president was exposed for plagiarism, and after Kamala Harris lost the presidential election.
Here&#8217;s how it usually goes: Conservatives pointed out that DEI was involved in some way. And then everyone on the Left acted with shock and indignation at the mere suggestion that DEI might have backfired. 
DEI, they tell us, is an essential mandate that always adds value. It&#8217;s vital to every organization. And then, in the same breath, they tell us that DEI can&#8217;t possibly be related to any failure by any organization or government agency that practices DEI. In other words, DEI is either critically important or not important at all, depending on how things are going. 
As entire neighborhoods in Los Angeles are destroyed by fires, once again, we&#8217;re seeing this familiar pattern play out. As we talked about yesterday, conservatives have pointed out that DEI has infected every aspect of the government of Los Angeles, and in particular its Fire Department. And in response, as they usually do, the Left has insisted that DEI actually had nothing whatsoever to do with the fires, or the disastrous response to them. And they&#8217;re wagging their fingers at anyone who suggests otherwise.
Rolling Stone, in particular, was upset with my response to the wildfires. The published an article the other day <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/right-wingers-blame-los-angeles-fires-diversity-democrats-1235230047/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">entitled</a>, &#8220;RIGHT-WINGERS ARE BLAMING THE L.A. FIRES ON DIVERSITY.&#8221; Here&#8217;s <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/right-wingers-blame-los-angeles-fires-diversity-democrats-1235230047/">part of it</a>: &#8220;Climate-denying conservatives are instead blaming the devastation on California&#8217;s &#8216;woke&#8217; policies. &#8230; &#8216;Los Angeles deliberately set out to exclude white men from becoming firefighters, and now they don&#8217;t have enough firefighters to prevent their city from burning to the ground,&#8217; wrote right-wing commentator Matt Walsh in one post endorsed by Elon Musk. &#8216;DEI is a cancer that destroys everything it touches.'&#8221;
Now, first of all, I had to look up who wrote this article, because it reads like something our PR department would come up with. The whole article is just a series of quotes — from myself, Alex Jones, Elon Musk, Megyn Kelly, and so on. And sure enough, the author is one Nikki McCann Ramirez, a former Media Matters staffer. She&#8217;s apparently found another organization that&#8217;s willing to pay her to write articles about my tweets, after Elon Musk sued Media Matters into the ground.
The only original contribution that Nikki Ramirez made to the article is this line of commentary at the end. It reads: &#8220;There&#8217;s no evidence that the fire department&#8217;s push for diversity has any effect on its ability to fight fires.&#8221;
It&#8217;s a line that made me realize we need to do another deep-dive on DEI in the Los Angeles Fire Department, because it&#8217;s completely false. But a lot of people on the Left are still repeating it. And they&#8217;re repeating this line because they think it&#8217;s safe. In their minds, it&#8217;s impossible to find a &#8220;smoking gun&#8221; that proves DEI leads directly to failure. After all, DEI is a bureaucratic system. And the whole point of bureaucracy is to make it impossible to assign blame.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mws-ep-1512-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
Unfortunately for Rolling Stone and the rest of these activists, the leaders of the Los Angeles Fire Department haven&#8217;t been subtle about their DEI policies, and the impact these policies have on their job performance. In fact, they&#8217;ve actually been quite direct about it. Here&#8217;s a video of Deputy Chief Kristine Larson, the head of the Fire Department&#8217;s &#8220;Equity and Human Resources Bureau.&#8221; You may have seen a shortened version of this video online, because it&#8217;s going viral. I found a longer, unedited version of it. And it&#8217;s worth watching because it implicates both the LAPD and the LAFD. And it also includes the context, to the extent you need it. Here it is:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="001 DEI Responders" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bnkHLJtjdB0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
It looks like some kind of AI-generated parody, but it&#8217;s not. So let&#8217;s review what we just saw.
The first claim from the Deputy Fire Chief is that, when you have a medical emergency or when your house is on fire, all you care about is seeing first responders who &#8220;look like you.&#8221; You don&#8217;t care if they&#8217;re good at their jobs. You&#8217;re not worried about their CPR certifications, or their ability to put out fires. Instead, the most important thing is the appearance of the firefighter — meaning their skin color and gender. And the LAPD sergeant agrees with that.
This isn&#8217;t a claim that needs to be broken down and dissected in a million different ways. But just for fun, let&#8217;s do that.
First of all, let&#8217;s assume this is true. Let&#8217;s assume that, when white people call 911 in Los Angeles because their house is burning down, they really don&#8217;t want to see black firefighters show up. So when a team of all-white firefighters show up, in Kristine Lawson&#8217;s worldview, it would be totally normal and appropriate for the white homeowner to say, &#8220;Thank God they didn&#8217;t send any black firefighters.&#8221; After all, he wants to see people who look like him. What&#8217;s wrong with that?
Of course, what Kristine Larson really means is that non-white firefighters should want to see non-white firefighters respond to their house. But there&#8217;s still a big problem here. I&#8217;d wager a lot of money that there&#8217;s not a single black person on the planet who would react with relief or joy, if they called 911 and someone like Kristine Larson waddled up to their door. That would be a moment of sheer panic for anyone, regardless of skin color. That would be the moment they knew that their life was over.
But even if we assume that black people demand to be saved by overweight black lesbian firefighters like Kristine Larson, there&#8217;s still another problem with Larson&#8217;s explanation, which is this: How exactly would dispatchers know what race of firefighters to send to a particular call? Should the dispatcher demand to know the callers&#8217; race? Should they dispatch race-matching fire crews? Is any of this happening right now in Los Angeles? By the logic of the Deputy Fire Chief, it should be happening.
And then, of course, comes the second part of the video, in which Larson responds to someone who&#8217;s worried that, as an overweight black lesbian, she won&#8217;t be able to lift a man and remove him from a house fire. Larson&#8217;s response is that the man shouldn&#8217;t have put himself in that position in the first place.
She couldn&#8217;t be making it any clearer that DEI hiring compromises the fire department&#8217;s ability to do its job. She thinks it&#8217;s a laugh line, apparently. This is how DEI hires at the highest levels of the Los Angeles Fire Department are talking about the impact of DEI on their jobs.
But Larson has never been disqualified or punished in any way. She has a job paying well over $300,000 a year at the Los Angeles Fire Department, in which she enforces various equity mandates while she laughs at people who ask why she&#8217;s so overweight. And part of that job apparently entails weeding out alleged &#8220;bigots&#8221; in the ranks of the Los Angeles Fire Department. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="002 Chief Kristine Larson" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zy91lf-YNnY?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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This is reminiscent of Lloyd Austin&#8217;s big plan to purge the Pentagon of &#8220;extremist white supremacists,&#8221; by which he meant, white people who support Donald Trump and refuse to take the COVID shot. It&#8217;s the kind of thing that no public agency in the United States should be doing, for about a million reasons.
First of all, the idea of &#8220;racism&#8221; in fire departments and police departments has been stretched beyond all recognition, to the point that it&#8217;s completely meaningless. As we discussed earlier this week, fire departments all over the country are getting sued right now for &#8220;racism&#8221; because they attempt to enforce basic standards of literacy and competence in the admissions process.
Secondly, this is a department that&#8217;s now very short of manpower during a historic crisis. Barring extreme circumstances, they should not be weeding out any competent firefighters right now. The Los Angeles Fire Department should be focused on retaining as many firefighters as possible — not firing them for liking an offensive meme or something. And if you doubt that, take a look at Ferguson, Missouri, or Minneapolis, or Baltimore. Have any of these cities become safer, after the BLM revolution? Of course not.
The real purpose of all of these purges is to punish anyone who thinks an unapproved thought that also happens to be true. They don&#8217;t want people to make obvious observations like this one: Women shouldn&#8217;t be firefighters at all. Any effort to include more women is by definition an effort to make the fire department less equipped and less capable.
The same is true for police departments, which are being gutted all over the country in the name of equity. Just this week, the Maryland State Police agreed to a $3 million settlement with Joe Biden&#8217;s DOJ over their hiring practices. As one local news station <a href="https://www.wbaltv.com/article/maryland-state-police-agree-27-million-settlement-civil-rights-lawsuit/63381102" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a>: &#8220;The lawsuit claimed that the Maryland Department of State Police violated Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when it used a certain physical fitness test and a certain written test to hire entry-level troopers. The lawsuit claimed the tests disqualified more women and African American applicants than others and were not job-related.&#8221;
In other words, in the world of policing, physical fitness and literacy are no longer &#8220;job-related,&#8221; apparently. This is how many police and fire departments now operate. They know they have to hire and promote incompetent people.
This is the kind of deliberate sabotage that has directly contributed to the disaster that&#8217;s unfolding in Los Angeles. Instead of spending every moment thinking about protecting their state, the leadership of California has been busy appointing &#8220;equity&#8221; overseers. So, when a disaster occurs, they have no idea what to do.
That led to this clown-car performance from Gavin Newsom yesterday. He told a constituent he was on the phone with Joe Biden. Then, when she asked to talk to Joe Biden, he admitted he didn&#8217;t have cell service. Watch:
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If thousands of people weren&#8217;t having their lives destroyed right now, the incompetence would be pretty amusing. Instead, given the staggering nature of this catastrophe, it’s infuriating. And people are very, very tired of this kind of thing. They want competence to make a comeback.
That would mean the Los Angeles Fire Department would have to fire some overweight lesbians who are making $300,000 a year. But it would also mean that, the next time a massive wildfire engulfs the city, Los Angeles might actually have water in the fire hydrants. They might have a mayor who&#8217;s on the scene, coordinating a response, instead of pandering in Africa. They might have enough firefighters to put out the blaze.
That&#8217;s a turn of events that outlets like &#8220;Rolling Stone magazine&#8221; desperately wants to prevent. But at this point, it&#8217;s looking more likely than ever. DEI has been tried, and it has failed in spectacular fashion. Now it&#8217;s time for competent people to take over — even if they happen to be white men. The residents of Los Angeles might not understand much, but they understand survival. And at this point, that&#8217;s exactly what survival will take.

TOPSHOT-US-WEATHER-FIRE

How DEI Is Destroying L.A.’s Fire Department

How DEI Is Destroying L.A.'s Fire Department

Firefighter

Matt Walsh

Opinion

California Governor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/gavin-newsom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gavin Newsom</a> asked President Joe Biden during a video conference call on Friday afternoon to combat criticism over his disastrous response to the wildfires that erupted this week.
Newsom&#8217;s call with Biden comes after several fires erupted in Los Angeles on Tuesday that have, in just a matter of a few days, destroyed approximately 10,000 structures and caused $50 billion in damages and economic loss.
&#8220;I ask you, we&#8217;ve got to deal with this misinformation,&#8221; Newsom said. &#8220;There were hurricane force winds of mis[information] and disinformation — lies.&#8221;
&#8220;People want to divide this country, and we&#8217;re gonna have to address that as well,&#8221; he claimed. &#8220;And it breaks my heart, as people are suffering and struggling, that we&#8217;re up against those hurricane forces as well, and that&#8217;s just a point of personal privilege that I share that with you, because it infects real people that are out there, people I meet every single day, people the mayor has been meeting with, and they&#8217;re having conversations that are not the typical conversations you&#8217;d have at this time, and you wonder where this stuff comes from and it&#8217;s very damaging as well.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
&#8220;There are hurricane force winds of mis- and disinformation. People want to divide this country. We&#8217;ll have to address that as well. It breaks my heart. &#8230; You wonder where this stuff comes from.&#8221;
&#8212; California Gov. Gavin Newsom during wildfire briefing with Biden and Harris <a href="https://t.co/AOdhTu2xKO">pic.twitter.com/AOdhTu2xKO</a>
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) <a href="https://twitter.com/HowardMortman/status/1877791085705003369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
The remarks from Newsom come as President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly called for him to resign this week over his lack of preparedness for the wildfires.
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Some of Trump&#8217;s posts about Newsom included:
<ul>
<li>&#8220;One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning down to the ground,&#8221; Trump wrote. &#8220;It’s ashes, and Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;Governor Gavin Newscum should immediately go to Northern California and open up the water main, and let the water flow into his dry, starving, burning State, instead of having it go out into the Pacific Ocean,. It ought to be done right now, NO MORE EXCUSES FROM THIS INCOMPETENT GOVERNOR. IT’S ALREADY FAR TOO LATE!&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;Fire is spreading rapidly for 3 days — ZERO CONTAINMENT. Nobody has ever seen such failed numbers before! Gross incompetence by Gavin Newscum and Karen Bass….And Biden’s FEMA has no money — all wasted on the Green New Scam! L.A. is a total wipeout!!!&#8221;</li>
<li>&#8220;The fires in Los Angeles may go down, in dollar amount, as the worst in the History of our Country. In many circles, they’re doubting whether insurance companies will even have enough money to pay for this catastrophe. Let this serve, and be emblematic, of the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the Biden/Newscum Duo. January 20th cannot come fast enough!&#8221;</li>
</ul>

California Governor Gavin Newsom Holds News Conference

Newsom Asks Biden To Combat Criticism Over His Disastrous Fire Response

Fire

Joe Biden

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