Trump sought to withhold California fire aid because of politics, former official says

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

The former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security claims in a political ad released Monday that President Trump tried to withhold disaster relief money for California’s wildfires because voters in the state opposed him politically.

“He told us to stop giving money to people whose houses had burned down from a wildfire because he was so rageful that people in the state of California didn’t support him and that politically it wasn’t a base for him,” Miles Taylor, who left the Trump administration in 2019, claims in the ad.

“A lot of the time, the things he wanted to do not only were impossible but, in many cases, illegal,” Taylor said, recalling how Trump “didn’t want” to hear aides inform him that his policies wouldn’t stand up to legal challenges.

“These were his words: He knew that he had ‘magical authorities,’” Taylor said, recalling a phrase he said Trump used to brush off questions from aides.

The Department of Homeland Security oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Taylor doesn’t say which wildfires he is referring to, but the group running the ad confirmed it was the Camp fire of 2018, and Trump toured the devastation in Paradise that year.

*snip*

[kimbutgar]

1. Irony is a lot of places where these fires occurred are areas that vote republican!

[Nevilledog]

2. Details aren't important to trump.

[kimbutgar]

6. About 2 weeks before the Paradise fire I was up in that area and saw a bunch of MF45 flags.

Further north Another fire area had a lot of people who wanted to secede from California and start a new state.

[maxsolomon]

9. That would be the State of Jefferson

Rural Insurrectionists get treated like folk heroes, Urban Resisters get shot down in the street.

Thus America has always been.

[Tanuki]

15. Or the "Pleasure" fire, as Idiot45 would have it.

[Illumination]

18. What a DUFUS!!!.....

[0rganism]

3. anyone wondering why Gov. Newsom praised Trump today has their answer right here

"nice state you got there, shame if something were to happen to it"

want favors from the king? prepare to kiss the ring.

[Hekate]

12. I completely understand. Trump wants us all to suffer & die, & our Gov is trying to save us

He’s got a gun to all our heads.

[Budi]

4. Fast forward this to Gov Newsom..asap.

Do not kiss that s.o.b.'s ass Gov!

[Hekate]

13. Do you live in the fire zone? Do you know that Trump has a gun to our heads?

If you find yourself in the same situation, you just go ahead and taunt the gunman. I want to get out alive.

[Warpy]

5. He is one dumb bastard

Citified liberals might be choking on the smoke, but the people whose lives are being barbecued are on the edges of the Central Valley, bedrock right wing territory. And when the storms roll in, the survivors will be buried in mudslides.

I hope all Democratic challengers in the region campaign on "he wanted to let you burn." Maybe that kind of truth will sink in, nothing else ever has.

[calimary]

14. YES! I hope they go EVERYWHERE in western fire country with that one.

“He wanted to let you burn.”

Just as Texas Dems should be all over that state targeting Dan Patrick’s recommendation for coping with COVID, especially for older voters. “He wanted to let you die.”

[alwaysinasnit]

17. +1000

[Bayard]

7. Talk about abuse of power!

As well as, abuse of being human.

[Nevilledog]

8. Wait....someone accused trump of being human?

[BKDem]

10. President of All the People Who Voted for Me...

...unless your mayor and governor are Democrats

[Hekate]

11. KnR. He was taunting Gov Newsome yesterday. You could see it in his face & gestures & tone of voice

Three states are devastated. People have lost everything & some of them are dead. Nearly the whole country is experiencing the smoke.

And this murderer was taunting us because we didn’t vote for him.

[keithbvadu2]

16. Yet he still has solid supporters there.

Yet he still has solid supporters there.

[Initech]

19. I am not a violent person. I just want to see Trump punched in the face.

And it wouldn't take much either - a solid right cross to his upper cheek bone should knock him out for a couple of hours.

[roamer65]

20. THIS.