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Calif. Dems Roasted over DEI Priorities as Fires Burn Down L.A.

January 9, 2025

As wildfires rage across southwest California, Democrats are taking heat for preparing poorly and prioritizing DEI policies over safety. Several fires broke out Tuesday in Los Angeles County, with more fires appearing Wednesday, according to Cal Fire.

The largest fires — the Palisades fire, which has consumed over 17,000 acres just north of Santa Monica, and the Eaton fire, which has consumed over 10,000 acres north of Pasadena — are at 0% containment. Cal Fire estimates that the Lidia fire, just outside Ravenna, is at 40% containment and the Hurst fire, just north of San Fernando, is at 10% containment. The Sunset fire, burning over 40 acres and rapidly expanding north of West Hollywood, is also at 0% containment.

In the face of the destructive fires, which are estimated to have destroyed at least 5,000 homes so far and spurred the evacuation of over 80,000 from Los Angeles, Democratic officials have come under intense criticism for their failure to prepare to fight the fires. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) was visiting Ghana in Africa — on the taxpayers’ dime — when the fires broke out. She was a member of a delegation attending the inauguration of Ghana’s new president, John Dramani Mahama.

Bass has also been excoriated for major budget cuts she made to the Los Angeles Fire Department. The mayor reportedly slashed nearly $20 million from the fire department’s budget for the current fiscal year, including $13 million in cuts from operating supplies. Bass is said to have initially sought $23 million in budget cuts for the department. Noting the mayor’s budget cuts and poor preparation, L.A. Times owner Pat Soon-Shiong opined, “Competence matters.” When asked, upon her return to California, if she should apologize for being absent while Los Angeles citizens lost their homes or whether her fire department budget cuts were wise, Bass remained silent.

At a Tuesday press conference, California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) thanked Bass for her “leadership,” despite her absence from the country. “Thank you to Mayor Bass, who was on the phone immediately this morning… uh… making sure even in absentia that she’s here… uh… organizing everything she can to make sure we’re successful as well,” he said.

Newsom has also been criticized for his response to the fires, including poor preparation at the state level for preventing fires and seemingly shifting responsibility for containing the fires to local and city officials. California State Representative Bill Essayli (R) blasted the governor for being “obsessed with holding a special session to ‘Trump-proof’ CA, when he should be focused on FIRE-PROOFING our communities.” Essayli also noted that Newsom and state Democrats have rejected legislation that would make it easier for firefighters to clear vegetation when battling forest fires or allow state and local authorities to clear overly dense vegetation that poses a fire hazard. The state legislator said, “For everyone saying this is not a time for blame, this is exactly the moment that the people who have been responsible for the mismanagement of California’s fire policies be held accountable.”

In a CNN interview, Newsom also shrugged off county water supply failures. When asked about fire hydrants that have run dry, Newsom responded, “The local folks are trying to figure that out. … That’s going to be determined by the local authorities.” He also faulted President-elect Donald Trump for trying to “politicize” the situation. “I stood next to the president of the United States of America today, and I was proud to be with Joe Biden and he had the backs of every single person in this community. And he didn’t play politics, didn’t try to divide any of us,” the governor intoned, referring to a visit from the outgoing Biden. Of Trump, he said, “This guy wanted to politicize it. I have a lot of thoughts, and I know what I want to say. I won’t.”

For his part, Trump lambasted Newsom’s handling of the fires over Truth Social. “Gavin Newscum 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,” the president-elect began.

He continued, “He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a 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.” Trump added, “I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is [to] blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, [or] firefighting planes. A true disaster!” Trump also added a parting shot at Biden, posting, “NO WATER IN THE FIRE HYDRANTS, NO MONEY IN FEMA. THIS IS WHAT JOE BIDEN IS LEAVING ME. THANKS JOE!”

In another Truth Social post, Trump declared, “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.” He continued, “Let this serve, and be emblematic, of the gross incompetence and mismanagement of the Biden/Newscum Duo. January 20th cannot come fast enough!” In a separate post, Trump added, “One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning down to the ground. It’s ashes, and Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!” A Fox News report chronicled the numerous instances since 2019 in which Trump warned Newsom to improve fire prevention and firefighting preparation.

Zachary Levi, a Hollywood actor who endorsed Trump last year, blasted Newsom’s “poor leadership” and “criminal mismanagement” of the fires. “Gavin Newsom has been either the governor for five years or lieutenant governor prior to that for eight, nine years. Some of the worst fires we’ve ever had in California [have been] under that watch,” Levi said in an interview. He continued, “He clearly knows that the biggest problem that we suffer in California are these fires.” Levi blasted Los Angeles Democrats, saying, “For them to do essentially — not just nothing, but worse than nothing, when firefighter budgets are being cut, when they are specifically, intentionally not doing the work that could be done to avoid these problems, or to be able to effectively serve them when they are happening.”

Actor James Woods, a rare outspoken conservative in Hollywood, also condemned Newsom’s management of the fires after Woods and his wife lost their home in the Pacific Palisades. “If it is true that things were handled this way, if it is true that Gavin Newsom is the absolute blithering idiot that I believe he is in the way he has handled fire management in this state again and again and again and again, this isn’t a wake-up call,” Woods said in an interview. He continued, “This is the kind of thing they have tribunals for, where they try people and say, you had an oath of office to perform certain duties.”

Woods also directed his ire at Bass, singling out her focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and policies. “She took over and she put on her bio that her priority — ‘My highest priority is inclusion, diversity, and equity. That is my priority,’” Woods recounted. He went on, “And somebody forgot to fill all the reservoirs, I guess, with water because when I was getting smoke alarms, there was a fire truck parked in front of my house, but they couldn’t pump any water because there was none, because they didn’t put them in the reservoirs.” The award-winning actor also blasted Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley for prioritizing DEI and LGBT policies over safety. Sharing a screenshot of Crowley’s online profile in which she lists “a culture that values diversity, inclusion, and equity” as one of her top priorities, Woods quipped, “Refilling the water reservoirs would have been a welcome priority, too, but I guess she had too much on her plate promoting diversity.”

Crowley, who became the city’s first fire chief to identify as a lesbian in 2022, launched a DEI bureau in early 2023, with an emphasis on reshaping Fire Department “culture” and implementing DEI hiring and promotion goals. “The goal is to fracture that status we’ve held, organizationally, as this hardcore, traditional fire service, that all we do is fire,” Crowley said of the changes she planned. One of the chief’s goals was to increase the hiring of women and those who identify as LGBT. Regarding her new hiring criteria, Crowley told a reporter, “People ask me, ‘What number are you looking for?’ I’m not looking for a number; it’s never enough.”

Author, historian, and conservative commentator Victor Davis Hanson was among those who criticized Crowley’s DEI myopia in the wake of the fires. In an interview Wednesday, Hanson commented, “The DEI fire chief, 70% of her hires have been based on DEI. Not muscularity, not experience, not size, not competence. The primary criterion was DEI.” He continued to say that the destructive severity of the fires “could have been prevented had we had meritocratic hiring, had we had plenty … of water, if we had a different forest policy, a different firefighting policy, a different insurance policy.”

Actor Chris Pratt, who had to flee his home with his wife due to the fires, called for prayers in the face of the disaster. “Join me in praying for the brave firefighters sacrificing so much to save our houses and our town,” the actor, an outspoken Christian, posted on social media. “Jesus protect the lives of those battling the flames and the lives of those who couldn’t evacuate.”

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.



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