Speaking during an interview on “Fox News Sunday” with Fox News Channel host Shannon Bream on Sunday, January 12, Vice President-elect JD Vance utterly obliterated the false claims from some, particularly in the MSM, that President-elect Donald Trump will try to withhold federal aid from California as it attempts to rebuild in the wake of the devastating Southern California wildfires.
As background, primarily at issue are comments made by Trump during a Los Angeles press conference in September 2024, as he ran for the presidency, in which he said that he would stop providing massive amounts of federal aid to California unless it starts spending the money in a far more prudent fashion.
Namely, the then-former president said, “We won’t give him money to put out all his fires.” He added, “And if we don’t give him the money to put out his fires, he’s got problems.” That comes in addition to Trump’s many comments about how the California government needs to do a better job managing its forests and water supplies.
Bream then asked VP-elect Vance what the president-elect meant by those comments as applied to the current wildfire crisis, namely as regards if the incoming Trump Administration is, as some in the media are claiming, considering not providing aid to California as it tries to rebuild in the wake of the Southern California fires.
Responding, Vance said that such an idea is not being considered and that Trump is doing his best to be a president of all Americans who leads a government that much better responds to all sorts of natural disasters, an issue with the federal government that has risen to the fore of public discussion given the Western NC disaster.
So, making that point and commenting both on Trump’s view and how he aims to have FEMA do a much better job, Vance said, “No, look, President Trump cares about all Americans, right? He is the president for all Americans. And I think that he intends to have FEMA and other federal responses much, much better and much more clued into what’s going on there on the ground.”
Then, when Bream asked about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s invitation for Trump to visit California, Vance said, “I know the president would love to visit California” and that “our hearts go out” to those whose lives have been impacted by the disastrous fires. He said, “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.”
Returning to the issue of Trump needing to do a better job at disaster relief, Vance then said, “And I do think, frankly, the federal government has to do a better job. 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. We need competent, good governance.” Watch him here:
Vance also ripped into Newsom during the interview, noting that he needed to do a better job at running California. He said, “There is 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.”
He added, noting the scale of the lack of preparedness and bringing the facts to back up his point, Vance said, “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 the fires. There was a serious lack of competent governance in California.” Watch that here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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