California lawmaker accuses Newsom, Dems of making state 'a tinderbox waiting for a spark'
James Gallagher says Democrats 'have failed to take care of forestry management in California'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom is blaming climate change for deadly wildfires to distract from the fact that his party's policies created the conditions for such blazes in the first places, Republican Assemblyman James Gallagher told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Friday.
"The Democrats who control this state, have been in charge of the legislature, and hold every statewide office have failed to take care of forestry management in California," Gallagher told host Tucker Carlson. "We have overgrown forests with brush piles ten feet high and dead and dying trees and it's a tinderbox waiting for a spark.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We have these fires that have killed my constituents, incinerated their homes, and left our communities devastated," added Gallagher, whose district includes the town of Paradise, where the 2018 Camp Fire damaged 95% of all buildings. In all, 86 people were killed in the blaze.
According to Gallagher, Newsom and other Democrats are guilty of "deflecting from the 40 years of mismanagement of our forests, of kowtowing to the big special interests in California [like] the Sierra Club, who said, 'We don't want one tree cut.'
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"It's this radical policy that is the cause of these fires and is leading to people dying," Gallagher continued. "We are very upset with how this policy has been carried out and the excuses ... that are made, that somehow it is our fault. Somehow, it's because we live where we live.
"There are people who chastise what kind of cars we drive, the lifestyle that we live, that somehow that's our fault and not their policies that clearly have been the cause of these devastating fires."