The West is on fire. It took Trump 3 weeks to
mention it
By CARLA
MARINUCCI 09/11/2020 09:13 PM EDT
OAKLAND —
California and the West have been on fire, but President Donald Trump went more
than three weeks without mentioning it.
During that
time, Trump tweeted, golfed, held news conferences and appeared at campaign
rallies. He visited Louisiana in late August after Hurricane Laura killed 27
people, saying he wanted "to support the great people of Louisiana, it's
been a tremendous state for me."
But as
wildfires ravaged Western states with a similar number of deaths, Trump waited
until Friday night to reference it publicly after coming under growing
criticism for his silence.
"THANK
YOU to the 28,000+ Firefighters and other First Responders who are battling
wildfires across California, Oregon, and Washington," he wrote. "I
have approved 37 Stafford Act Declarations, including Fire Management Grants to
support their brave work. We are with them all the way!"
The Trump
administration has behind the scenes approved emergency declarations and
pledged federal relief to states trying to contain fast-moving fires.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he spoke to Trump for 30 minutes Thursday, a
conversation that included specifics about the North Complex Fire where nine
people were found dead this week.
But West
Coast residents wondered why he didn't use his presidential bullhorn to summon
support from Americans — except once to blame the state for not taking care of
its forests.
Last month,
when California was under siege by hundreds of lightning-caused fires, Trump
held up the state as an example of liberal excess in a speech to Pennsylvania
rallygoers. “I see again the forest fires are starting," he told
supporters. “I said, you gotta clean your floors, you gotta clean your forests
— there are many, many years of leaves and broken trees and they’re like, like,
so flammable, you touch them and it goes up."
Across the
West, 42 large fires have put more than 28,000 firefighters and support
personnel on the front lines to contain damage as 4.5 million acres have
burned, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. A dry winter, record
heat, lightning strikes and high winds have combined to create perfect
conditions for fire to spread.
While
California has drawn the most attention in recent years, Oregon and Washington
this month have also suffered from a staggering scale of devastation that has
put entire towns in danger as tens of thousands were ordered to evacuate. In
southern Oregon, about 25 miles north of the California border, entire blocks
of homes were razed by fire in the towns of Phoenix and Talent. In eastern
Washington, the local sheriff said wildfires left Malden as a
"moonscape," according to the New York Times.
In
California, the North Complex Fire has been raging for weeks and erupted this
month when winds swept through Northern California. So far, nine people have
died and others remain missing in Butte County, the same region where the town
of Paradise was decimated in late 2018 in the state's deadliest fire.
Further
south, about 200 people had to be airlifted by National Guard helicopters over
Labor Day weekend from a Sierra Nevada region near Yosemite National Park — and
some were told their best chance for survival was to jump in the nearby
reservoir.
Meanwhile,
West Coast residents hundreds of miles away choked under orange skies, blankets
of thick smoke and raining ash, as the National Weather Service warned of
unhealthy breathing conditions for millions.
"Still
no word from Trump, the self-proclaimed savior of the suburbs," tweeted
liberal activist Amy Siskind, referencing threatened and destroyed
neighborhoods in Oregon earlier this week. Slate's Mark Joseph Stern blamed it
on the Electoral College, which "allows — indeed, encourages — Trump to
ignore California's wildfire crisis because he knows he cannot win the
state."
On
Thursday, the White House approved Oregon's request for an emergency
declaration in response — but only after 1 in 8 Oregonians were advised to flee
their homes as Gov. Kate Brown said September firestorms are likely to be the
deadliest in Oregon history.
Democratic
presidential candidate Joe Biden said Thursday on Twitter, "The images
coming out of California, Oregon, Washington, and other Western states are
truly horrifying. If you’re in an impacted area, please heed the warnings from
your local authorities and stay safe. Jill and I are keeping you all in our
prayers."
Vice
President Mike Pence mentioned on Fox News Thursday that his daughter and
son-in-law live in California — and that he wanted to assure firefighters,
business and homeowners that they’ll have the federal government’s support.
Trump,
however, kept his fire discussions private. Newsom gave further details during
a visit to the North Complex Fire region on Friday. He said the Trump
administration issued a major disaster declaration last month that has helped
provide business and local government support, as well as emergency relief to
evacuees and victims.
“We walked
through the current status report on the active fires the larger
complexes," Newsom said. "We actually specifically talked about Butte
County and some of the recovery efforts from the campfire. And he reinforced
his commitment to our effort, and we were grateful.’’
The Trump
administration last month also reached a deal with Newsom to treat 500,000
wooded acres a year in California forestland — the majority of which the
federal government is responsible for.
If
anything, it has seemed like a missed opportunity for Trump to appear
presidential during a fall campaign stretch in which voters are questioning
such credentials — particularly after his handling of coronavirus, which has
killed more than 190,000 Americans.
“As
horrible as it sounds, natural disasters are almost always a positive political
opportunity,’’ said Sean Walsh, former communications director for Gov. Pete
Wilson and a Bush and Reagan White House insider. “At a minimum, you can
project empathy — people are suffering and people care when you care about
them,’’ a message that would resonate in a huge swath of the West this week,
not only in California but also Oregon and Washington.
In
addition, the president has at his disposal huge federal resources, Walsh
noted, “and the mere fact of deploying those resources is another positive note
you send to people" where there's a disaster.
Walsh
suggested that the reality for the White House may be as basic as “out of
sight, out of mind.’’ He noted that Beltway media in recent weeks have been
fixated on major revelations on the White House, first in the Atlantic last
week about Trump reportedly disparaging military members in private, then with
Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's new book, "Rage," with new
details about what the president knew when about coronavirus.
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