During a recent podcast appearance, California Governor Gavin Newsom appeared to deflect the blame for the disastrous wildfires, seemingly refusing to take responsibility for what has occurred under his leadership. In the interview, Newsom expressed frustration with local leaders in the state, claiming he was not getting consistent answers, making it difficult to determine the facts.
“I want to know the answers. So I’m the governor of California and want to know the answer,” he said before acknowledging that many are looking to him for answers. “I’ve got that question from I can’t tell you about how many people. ‘What happened?'” Lamenting that he wasn’t getting “straight answers,” Newsom continued, “My own team saying what happened, and I want to get the answers.”
“I watched the press conference with some of those leaders. We had my team start talking to local leaders saying, what’s going on,” Newsom continued, adding, “I was getting different answers. When you start getting different answers, then I’m not getting the actual story, and they’re assessing it, and I get that as well.”
However, Newsom did acknowledge that leaders must be given some amount of “grace” considering the gravity of the crisis. “You have to have a little bit of grace back to the point we’re in this emergency environment and everything else. So I just want to determine the facts,” he said. The governor then slammed the supposed weaponization of the crisis, calling out President-elect Donald Trump.
“But no one has any patience anymore in this weaponized back to the grievance of Trump everyone else. There’s immediacy and lies travel the proverbial world, and it’s hard to get the facts out there unless you have backing of those facts and you can communicate them soberly,” Newsom said, before outlining all the ongoing efforts he is undertaking to assist recovery efforts.
As clips from Newsom’s interview have gone viral on social media, some have interpreted his comments as deflecting the blame away from himself on to local leaders below him. Entrepreneur Alex Finn wrote on X, “This is the moment Gavin Newsom’s political career died. The number 1 rule of being an effective leader: you take responsibility for EVERYTHING that happens under you Over the past week this scoundrel Newsom has done nothing but deflect blame.”
Similarly, the popular MAGA account wrote, “Gavin Newsom blamed local leaders for failing to give him a clear picture of the devastation, suggesting it hampered his response, then he blamed Trump for spreading misinformation about the wildfires. Zero accountability for himself as the man who’s ultimately responsible for California. Don’t let Newsom pass the buck. Instead of appearing on liberal podcasts in an attempt to save his reputation, he should be helping Californians in desperate need.”
Watch Newsom below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
"*" indicates required fields