‘They’ve made terrible decisions’: Mike Johnson says conditions could be placed on California wildfire aid

"Are you saying that California, if they continue to aid and abet lawbreaking and harbor illegal immigrants, money from DC gets cut off?" Hannity asked. Johnson replied, "Yeah. We’re talking about conditions to this disaster aid. Look, there are natural disasters, but there are manmade disasters as well, and they’ve made terrible decisions. You know, they knew exactly what they were doing."

"That reservoir outside the Pacific Palisades, 117 million gallons, it was empty for a year. Why? They were trying to save a smelt fish or something. I mean, their policies are upside down, they made decisions that made that disaster exponentially worse, and this is what the American taxpayer is demanding of us everywhere else in the country." Since January 7, when the Palisades and Eaton fires began, over 40,000 acres have burned and over 15,000 structures have been destroyed. At least 28 people have died as a result, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention. On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an order requiring California to reapportion their water resources to benefit humans, not endangered fish.

Earlier in January, Johnson told reporters in the Capitol that lawmakers were going to have a "serious discussion" about placing conditions on aid to California. "Obviously there’s been water resource mismanagement, forest management mistakes, all sorts of problems, and it does come down to leadership," Johnson said. "And it appears to us that state and local leaders were derelict in their duty in many respects, so that’s something that needs to be factored in. I think there should be conditions on that aid. That’s my personal view, we’ll see what the consensus is."

During the interview, Hannity turned to lawmakers in the room and said, "You understand that you win or lose together? Does everyone get that?" The room replied, "yeah." Hannity said, "Nobody here will get everything they want, do we understand that?"