'People literally lost everything': CNN conservative faces blowback over Trump defense
January 09, 2025
CNN panelists faced off over Donald Trump's political attacks on California Gov. Gavin Newsom over the wildfires devastating the Los Angeles area.
Conservative commentator Scott Jennings justified the attack, saying that Democrats' leadership in the state was at least partially to blame for the destruction.
"If I were a California Democrat, I would also be screaming politicization because I wouldn't want anybody drawing attention to my management of this or decision-making either," Jennings said. "I don't think it's politicizing anything to draw attention to public policy choices, and whether the governor or whether the mayor of L.A., whether you're looking at things that happen in the city, such as cutting the firefighter budget, whether you're looking at issues, like, because it's California, they can't manage to build water storage, which would have come in handy on this. I think if I lived out there, I would have these questions right now, too."
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"Congress, by the way, is going to spend a bunch of money here, which they're going to need to do, some of these issues need to be addressed," Jennings added, "so the fact that Trump is bringing them up now is actually, I think, most taxpayers are going to want to see policy changes so that we don't have to repeat of this in the future."
California native Meghan Hays, a former White House staffer for president Joe Biden, said water issues in the state were far more complicated than Trump and Jennings had portrayed it.
"These water fights have been older than I am, and the longest time, and I'm from northern California, so there's always the fight [over] the water," Hays said. "But L.A. doesn't actually get most of its water from northern California, it gets it from the Colorado River. But needless to say, you are right on these some of these policy decisions, and that's fair to look at. I just, you know, you say you want to the president-elect wants to get along with the governor, but calling him 'Newscum' is probably not the best way to do that. But I agree that people should look at their policy decisions, but I don't think now is the time to do that."
"People literally have lost everything they have, and these urban fires are not something that California is used to," Hays added. "We're used to wildfires, and so I think there is a little bit different argument here."
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