Daniel Dale Dismantles Trump's False Wildfire Claims
By: Michael Luciano (Mediaite)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale addressed a series of prevarications by President-elect Donald Trump regarding the wildfires that broke out in Southern California earlier this week.
At least seven people have been killed, and thousands of structures have been destroyed or damaged as infernos fueled by high winds and drought conditions have ravaged the Los Angeles area. Trump has taken the opportunity to renew his long-running feud with Governor Gavin Newsom and the state of California in general.
Speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday night, Trump rattled off several falsehoods about the fires and the efforts to contain them. Later, on CNN NewsNight, host Abby Phillip played snippets of the president-elect, who has claimed that Newsom deliberately declined to send water to Southern California from the northern part of the state:
Gavin Newsom had an opportunity to have millions of gallons a week a day, millions and millions of gallons come down from the north. And I was able to get him federal approval from that, from actually from the Department of Commerce, of all departments. I didn't realize it would go through commerce. I would've thought environmental, but it goes through Commerce. I got all of the approvals and he said, "I don't want to sign it. I don't want the water.
Phillip turned to Dale and asked, "So, Daniel, can you tell us about what Trump said there? Is it true?"
Dale replied that the president had authored "a staggering quantity of wrongness":
I showed a social media post from the president-elect yesterday to an expert in California water policy, a man named Jeffrey Mount. He said, Abby, none of it is true. So this has just been a staggering quantity of wrongness from the president-elect in a very short period of time.
And there have been some small specific examples. Like, he keeps saying that Governor Newsom refused to sign a so-called water restoration declaration. In fact, no such declaration even exists, as Newsom's office has pointed out. He also said yesterday that they're not using firefighting planes. We've seen those planes. They're there.
But more than that, Abby, I think the president-elect has promoted an overarching false narrative. You heard a bit of it there, that the challenges we're seeing in the firefighting effort have something to do with a long-running policy battle about how much water should be kept in the north of the state to protect fish species like the delta smelt and other environmental ecosystems, and how much should be sent to the south to help agricultural interests. Farmers in an area called the Central Valley.
Now, two water policy experts in California told me emphatically yesterday, none of this has anything to do with each other. There is simply no connection between the protection of that smelt fish in that estuary in the delta in the north. And what we're seeing in the south for a number of reasons.
But number one, there is no shortage of water in the Los Angeles area. The reservoirs are at or above historical levels. The water is there. Now, we have seen high-profile issues in one part of the city, Pacific Palisades, where some hydrants were dry or did not have a lot of water. But that was not because there was not enough water in the region. That was because of technical, logistical infrastructure issues related to the hilly mountainous terrain and the location where water tanks have been situated.
So, the idea that not enough water has been sent down from the north and instead has been, you know, protecting a little fish there and that's why we're seeing these fires be hard to contain, simply does not bear out at all.
Phillip followed up by asking about Trump claiming that President Joe Biden was leaving office with no funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"What are the facts around that?" she inquired.
"It's just not true," Dale responded. "We heard this from Trump after Hurricane Helene in the fall. It wasn't true then and it's not true now. Now it is true that FEMA's disaster relief fund was severely depleted by the number of disasters last year. But critically, Abby, it was replenished by the disaster relief supplemental bill that President Biden signed in December. I spoke to FEMA yesterday. They told me that there is approximately $27 billion today in that disaster relief fund, plus billions of dollars of additional disaster-related funding they have in other pockets of money."
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For the past 8 years Trump has been creating misinformation about water in California, because he wants to blame it on environmental protection ( "the little fish"). Actual experts say there was no shortage of water to fight the fires ,rather , they had trouble getting the water on the fires.
But tens of millions of people across the country today believe that the fires did their damage because of smelt protection. Its always the same thing. Trump makes an ignorant comment about something he doesnt understand and the lemmings and conspiracy nuts lap it up.
If Trump had been in charge, he would have made sure they were "sweeping" those forests monthly.......
It’s the Indians and salmon fault per Trump.
BTW the right wing rant about cutting the LAFD budget was a lie, not unusual for them.
Let us call it what it is: "Dante's Inferno" created by radical policies of crazy green/environmental madness.
Trump is a pathological liar and the MAGAs support him in that endeavor.
No part of that is true.
Dante’s Inferno is not about wildfires. No radical policy created the wildfires. No green policy created them. No environmental madness created them.
Southern California has always had wildfires (just ask the Native tribes who lived here), just like the Southeast has always had hurricanes, the Plains have always had tornadoes, and the North has always had blizzards.
Have to disagree in part. You are correct in that the fires were not created by any green policy or environmental madness, but they did allow for how bad the fires have been. Policy on air quality has impacted the ability to do controlled burns which are used to reduce the fuel that feeds these fires. Californians passed Proposition 1 in 2014 which was known as the Water Quality, Supply and Infrastructure Improvement Act which authorized $2.7 billion in bonds to increase the state's water storage capacity with new reservoirs and groundwater storage facilities. No new reservoirs have been completed as of today. Nothing has been done on this in ten years despite the years where California had a huge budget surplus.
Preventing controlled burns to clean out the underbrush and preventing basic forestry management practices will normally end badly. Especially in an area which is known for wildfires.
California does do controlled burns. We also just straight up bulldoze fire breaks. Additionally, we have long had laws requiring property owners in fire prone areas to clear brush near their homes. None of that means anything when the wind is blowing at almost 100mph and embers can light a fire a mile away.
Sorry to give the impression that California does no controlled burns, they average about 125,000 acres a year. But as I said, policies on air quality do impact the ability to do more controlled burns. It's rather obvious that they are not doing enough controlled burns as well as other fuel management practices to limit the damage that wildfires can do. Santa Anna winds are a known issue just as wildfire season being a known issue. Yet the damage is getting worse.
There are several issues that have all contributed to this disaster including climate change and poor political management, as well as simple human greed of continuing to build more homes in potential fire zones. And this is by no means all the contributing issues. The political will to make a significant change seems to be lacking.
That is not obvious, unless you want to make the case that any fire is the result of poor planning.
This is not some overgrown forest. Most of this territory is dry grass and shrubs, with the occasional oak or eucalyptus tree. Much of that growth is naturally high in flammable oils.
Not in January, it’s not. Typical fire season ends in October. January is supposed to be our rainy season.
These whole neighborhoods that have been wiped out have existed for a hundred years. Greed? Your words imply that somehow these families deserved to lose their homes. Something like 150,000 people have evacuated.
I would like to see just one critic on this site offer the usual “thoughts and prayers” instead of trying to find someone to blame.
I swear to God, the next time a blizzard hits the Midwest or the East, or a hurricane strikes the Gulf, or a tornado destroys some Plains town, I’m gonna be on here talking about, “you greedy people brought that shit on yourselves.”
California normally does about controlled burns in about 125,000 acres over the year. As California itself is around 100 million acres, they do controlled burns in approximately .125% of the land. There were over 8000 wildfires last year in California which burned over a million acres. It was reported that the US Forestry Service stopped doing controlled burns last October. While that doesn't make a difference in this latest fire as the fires are in country forestry rather than the US forests it still shows the pattern. Also Gov Newsom cut $100 million from seven 'wildfire and forest resilience' programs in the 2024 budget which covers the 2024-25 fiscal year.
The Santa Ana winds usually occurs during cooler months from late September to May. So the winds happening in January is not unusual. While this is normally the rainy season, that is not happening this year. Much of Southern California has fallen into the moderate drought range due to the lack of rain.
As all of this was publicly available, one has to wonder why those in charge did not do more to work on wildfire resilience. I'm not saying this would have prevented all of this destruction and loss of life but it could have helped reduce it.
When people just rebuild after a fire to make the area look just like it did before without taking into account fire resistance, that is greedy on their part. When developers continue to build new subdivisions into new areas and set up neighborhoods with only the minimal space between homes, that is greedy on their part.
Yeah, I could have said that my thoughts and prayers are with you and I hope that all feel better because of it but we both know that's a rather meaningless phrase. IMO it's normal human behavior to try to understand the issues and try to find solutions to these things. Wildfires in California are well known, as is some of the practices that can be brought into play to reduce the impact of them. But getting people to accept that they need to change some things in how they live is very difficult, people don't like to change. But as you've ended snarky I believe I'll just leave this here and move on. I do hope the people impacted by this are able to recover and hope that there are no more deaths from this.
It's called political gridlock. And it keeps happening because politicians of various stripes and interests love to go around in circles instead of cutting a new path forward! Thus, nature is 'cutting' society everywhere in the world a new 'one'—itself!
There is some truth on both sides of this. Let's be clear about the motivations of different groups of people. However, let's not kid ourselves. . . nature loves a void and had it not been in Southern California - a wildfire would break out due to human clumsiness or machinery in other parts of this long state. Fires will break out where-ever there is time and space to do so. Unfortunately, there is no SAFETY PLAN which can MONITOR every hill and mountain that humans can traverse, lightning can strike, and depending on what trash is strewn around in the hills and mountain areas - even broken GLASS can magnify sunlight and ignite fires in underbrush given the right circumstance.
It is called 'undergrowth' for a reason. This stuff builds up in places in hollows, peaks, and deep ravines inaccessible to humans (which are difficult and impractical to consider reaching - especially repeatedly) and it can sprout FAST! It has the "properties" to exist out of sight in plain sight on every hillside and mountain perpetually returning.
Trees, brush, shrubs, shed it. Wood particles 'everywhere.' Wind spreads it on clean areas anew. (Just consider how often one's own lawn can grow from the water provided it; this stuff has water underground supplying its growth 'needs.')
It's 'wash, rinse, repeat' all the time-management. No municipality has that kind of budget to 24/7 monitor such nature growth. This is why cities and areas try prevention strategies (difficult as they are) and spend a large part of their time in trying to manage outbreaks when/where they happen.
Nothing about that management is easy. Especially in a state as large, hilly, and mountainous as California.
Wherever the focus is; the fire breaks out in the 'other' (unwatched) places. Through human, animal, and other natural ways.
No political system can fix this perfectly and likely not manage it significantly any better.
That’s what we consistently get from Trump. At this point, I am forced to assume that anything Trump says is false. If you are ever interested in a situation and want to know what is probably not true, just listen to Trump.
I don't think this is particularly relevant, but at least it's timely:
Trump is backkk! He's coming for California!!! And the lying 'wunderkind' is bringing his USUAL BAG OF TRICKS AND GOODIES WITH HIM!:
CNN REPORTER AND FACTCHECKER DANIEL DALE with ANCHOR ABBY PHILLIP
B USTE D!
Bears repeating to correct the LYING TRUMP NARRATIVE:
Check this out (Fox News has to 'eat' propaganda 'raw') on the fires:
Fox 'News' panel MELTS DOWN after host DEBUNKS Trump FIRE LIES
Note the start of this video as republican 'heavyweights' in the Senate accept a mouth of of 'cratty' lies from the President-Elect. Then, continue on to the rest of the video