Right-wing media figures call for withholding California wildfire aid, blame ‘liberals’ for disaster

Prominent right-wing media personalities are calling on the federal government to withhold or place conditions on disaster aid for victims of the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, blaming California’s own policies for the scale of the devastation and response.

Prominent right-wing media personalities are calling on the federal government to withhold or place conditions on aid for victims of the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, blaming California’s own policies for the scale of the devastation and response. As firefighters slowly gain control of the wildfires raging near Los Angeles and thousands of residents return to find their homes in ashes, pro-Trump personalities are blasting state and local officials for “woke” policies that they fault for the disaster. On Fox News, the network’s hosts have lined up behind the politicized approach, taking pot-shots at the state for its progressive values. Host Sean Hannity told viewers California doesn’t “deserve one federal dollar” because of its immigration policies and placed blame on the state’s forest management. “Any aid has got to insist that the science of forestry be implemented so you, the American people, you don’t have to keep bailing people out,” Hannity said Tuesday night. “They’ve got to clear out the brush and do things like, oh, control burns and maybe not put a little shrub above the safety of people’s lifeblood, their home.” Fellow Fox prime time host Jesse Watters suggested that California, with its higher state income tax rate, shouldn’t need additional funding but that officials had squandered tax dollars on unrelated issues. “Will American taxpayers rebuild L.A. without strings attached?” Watters asked his audience Tuesday night. “L.A. spent more on homeless than firefighters, and both problems are getting worse. They lost $55 billion in Covid money, lost it. They spent $20 billion on a high-speed train that doesn’t go anywhere.”