Newsom claims Trump is 'politicizing' wildfires by slamming California climate change policies

As California Governor Gavin Newsom has been facing heavy criticism for the wildfires in his state, he complained that President-elect Donald Trump "politicized" the situation after the president-elect slammed the governor over climate policies that impact the water supply.

CNN's Anderson Cooper was interviewing Newsom with questions about the circumstances of the fire hydrants running out of water in the Palisades fire where he asked about Trump’s criticism.

“One can’t even respond to it,” Newsom told Cooper in response to him asking about the "attack" from Trump. “People are literally fleeing, people lost their lives, kids lost their schools, families completely torn asunder, churches burned down. This guy wanted to politicize it."

On Wednesday, Trump posted on Truth Social, "Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way. He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid."

Newsom was also asked about the fire hydrants running out of water when first responders were fighting the fires. He passed the responsibility onto local officials.

"Look, the local folks are trying to figure that out,” Newsom said about the hydrants running out of water. “I mean when you have a system — but it’s not dissimilar from what we’ve seen in other extraordinarily large-scale fires, whether it be pipe, electricity, or whether it just be the complete overwhelm of the system."

As fires have ripped through portions of Los Angeles, at least five people have lost their lives. The fires began Tuesday in Palisades and over 17,000 acres have burned as of Thursday morning and a fire in Eaton has burned over 10,000. Both fires remain zero percent contained.