GOP lawmakers are already considering how they can use the Los Angeles wildfires to extract concessions from California.
In a Sunday stop on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Wyoming GOP Sen. John Barrasso said the wildfires were a symptom of “gross mismanagement in California by elected officials” and imagined hearings ahead of any congressional approval of federal aid.
“There can’t be a blank check on this, however, because people want to make sure that as rebuilding occurs… that these sorts of things can’t happen again,” he said. “The policies of the liberal administration out there, I believe have made these fires worse.”
Barrasso went on to envision an aid package with “strings attached.”
Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., voiced his disgust over Barrasso’s comments on X.
“This is disgraceful. Disaster aid should never come with strings attached,” he wrote. “Zero strings. Every damn time no matter where they live.”
Republicans and MAGA media outlets have painted the wildfires as the direct result of liberal policymaking. Conservative narrative-shapers like Libs of TikTok and Fox News hosts like Jesse Watters have both blamed the fires on diversity initiatives.
“California is committing suicide before our very eyes. DEI is deadly,” Watters said earlier this week, before claiming that the state was “scrub[bing] white males from the fire department.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has pushed back against the claims from conservatives and President-elect Donald Trump, saying on Sunday that misinformation doesn’t “advantage or aid any of us.”
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