Written by Nathan Layne
(Reuters) – Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass came under fire for her response to a series of raging wildfires on Thursday, as President-elect Donald Trump sought to blame California Governor Gavin Newsom for the deadly disaster.
The criticism, fueled by Trump and his allies on social media, has sparked a political conflict over two major wildfires threatening Los Angeles from the east and west. At least five people died in the accident, which turned into one of the biggest natural disasters in California history.
The mayor, who was on a business trip to Ghana when the fires broke out on Tuesday, faced questions about her initial absence as the National Weather Service for Los Angeles began warning of “extreme fire weather conditions” last week.
Bass, who will be sworn in as mayor of America’s second most populous city in December 2022, has tried to deflect criticism of her leadership and did not answer reporters’ questions Thursday about her decision to leave the country this week.
“My number one focus, and I think the focus of all of us here in one voice, is that we have to protect lives, we have to save lives and we have to save homes,” Bass said at a briefing Thursday. “Rest assured that … when it’s done, when we’re safe, when lives are saved and homes are saved, we absolutely will do an evaluation to see what worked, (and) what didn’t work.”
The fires broke out at a particularly sensitive time for Southern California, which has not seen significant precipitation for months. They were fanned by relentless Santa Ana winds, which have so far swallowed 31,000 acres (12,500 hectares) — an area more than twice the size of Manhattan.
The water shortage caused some hydrants in the rich Pacific Palisades to dry up, hampering the response. Bass said the hydrants were not designed to handle such a large disaster and emphasized the unprecedented nature of the fire.
TRUMP LOVES POLITICAL FLAMES
In a social media post Thursday, Trump, a Republican, took aim at Bass and Newsom — both Democrats — for what he described as “gross incompetence” in dealing with the fires — a point he repeated later in the day at his Mar-a-Lago Florida resort.
“They are both cold-bloodedly incompetent,” Trump said.
In 2019, during his first term as president, Trump criticized Newsom’s management of forests, which he said contributed to devastating wildfires. This week, he criticized the state’s water management policy in social media posts that the governor and other officials dismissed as false or misleading.
“One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning to the ground,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“It’s ashes, and Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!,” he wrote, misspelling the governor’s name in an apparent jab.
The offices of Bass and Newsom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
When CNN asked Newsom about Trump’s attacks Wednesday night, he said the president-elect was playing politics at a time when people were losing their lives.
“I have a lot of thoughts and I know what I want to say. I won’t,” Newsom said, comparing Trump’s response to the support he said he received from President Joe Biden during his visit to the region. “He had the back of every single person in this community. He didn’t get into politics and try to divide any of us.”
Trump ally Elon Musk and a number of other conservatives joined the crowd, seeking to blame the disaster in part on diversity programs typically promoted by Democrats. There is no evidence to support their claims that such programs have affected the effectiveness of the response.
Musk, the billionaire tech mogul, called Bass “grossly incompetent” in a post on social media platform X that has had 23 million views. In a separate post, he baselessly accused city officials of prioritizing diversity programs over “saving lives and homes.”
