Just two days after California Governor Gavin Newsom thanked President Donald Trump for his help during a tour of the wildfire devastation in the state, he met with Democrat Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris and praised her embrace of climate change as the cause for the blazes.
“I want to thank you and acknowledge the work you have done to be immediate in your response,” Newsom told Trump during a Monday meeting at the Sacramento McClellan Airport. Newsom said the response of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been “profoundly significant.”
But on Tuesday, when Newsom met with Harris, the two were united in their belief that climate change is responsible for the deadly blazes, even though wildfire season has taken place in the western U.S. for centuries and forest management can help limit the range of blazes.
“Sadly, these wildfires and the devastation they cause are utterly predictable,” Harris said. “This is not a partisan issue. This is just a fact. We have to do better as a country.”
Harris and Newsom toured Fresno County where the Creek Fire leveled homes, leaving only chimneys standing.
“Those chimneys remind me of tombstones,” Harris said, adding:
We have to understand that California, like so many other parts of our country, has experienced extreme weather conditions. It is incumbent on us, in terms of the leadership of our nation, to take seriously these new changes in our climate, and to do what we can to mitigate against the damage.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on the tour:
Newsom, who a day earlier gently urged Trump in a wildfires briefing outside Sacramento to accept that “climate change is real, and that is exacerbating this,” bumped elbows with Harris as he arrived. The two peered at the rubble of a home that burned down to its foundation and looked at a burned pickup truck nearby.
Newsom alluded to Trump’s visit as he spoke alongside Harris: “If you don’t believe in science, come to California and observe it with your own eyes,” he said. “You cannot be in denial about this reality.
The governor said Harris “gets it” and that a Biden administration would be committed to rapidly overhauling America’s energy economy by reducing the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere.
Since his election, Trump has worked to put forest management plans in place, including clearing vegetation, thinning dead trees, and putting fire breaks in place.
As Breitbart News has reported, those efforts have been blocked by environmentalists and courts.
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