While California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing a crisis of confidence amid the deadly and "apocalyptic" wildfires this week, Vice President-elect JD Vance rejected Newsom's pleas for not politicizing the disaster.
"We need competent, good governance: Now that doesn't mean you can't criticize the governor of California for, I think, some very bad decisions over a very long period of time," Vance said in a TV interview Sunday.
"I mean, some of these reservoirs have been dry for 15, 20 years. The fire hydrants are being reported as going dry while the firefighters are trying to put out these fires.
"There was a serious lack of competent governance in California. And I think it'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."
Trump has called on Newsom to resign and Vance said a trip to California could come this month.
"I know the president would love to visit California," Vance said, "and first of all, you know, our hearts go out to everybody who has been affected by the storms. I'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's hard not to see those images and just be heartbroken for our fellow Americans who are going through a very tough time."
The Biden administration deserves criticism, too, according to Vance.
"And I do think, frankly, the federal government has to do a better job," he said. "President Trump is committed to doing a better job when it comes to disaster relief.
"That's true for the hurricane victims and flood victims in North Carolina. It's true for the fire victims in California. We just — we have to do a better job."
President Joe Biden "has been asleep at the wheel for a number of different crises," Vance concluded.
"I do think it drives home, just again, we've had incompetent governance for so long," he said.
"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 it should do, it ought to do them well.
"And that's one of the things that President Trump and I are going to fight to get back to."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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