As a member of the Trump Regime Media that seeks to exploit disasters for political advantage, WorldNetDaily made its contribution by baselessly blaming the California wildfires on DEI. Wayne Allyn Root was first up in his Jan. 10 column:
The entire governments of the state of California and the city of Los Angeles are dedicated to DEI. The fire chief of L.A. is a lesbian devoted to DEI. Her deputy chief is a black lesbian. They publicly bragged about their devotion to ridding the L.A. Fire Department of old-school white guys and hiring for “diversity.”
Maybe, just maybe, a bunch of white, straight men who spent their lives fighting wildfires could have slowed or stopped this fire. If you just lost your home and a lifetime of memories in this fire, which would you choose – a white fireman who knows how to fight a wildfire, or a black lesbian hired for her skin color and sexual orientation?
Root offered no evidence that his hypothetical “black lesbian” had no training whatsoever in fighting wildfires.
He also found a way to somehow blame Ukraine: “Are you aware a large portion of L.A.’s firefighting equipment was sent to Ukraine to aid in the war effort?” In fact, that was surplus equipment that was donated in 2022.
Victor Joecks grumbled in his Jan. 14 column: “L.A. Fire Chief Kristin Crowley made DEI one of her top priorities and sought to recruit more women.” Laura Hollis huffed in her Jan. 16 column: “The fire department itself has been the subject of criticism for its DEI hiring policies – personified by Deputy Chief Kristine Larson, caught on video defending her inability to carry a man out of a burning building, saying, ‘He got himself into the wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire.'”
Richard Blakley whined in his Jan. 24 column:
Next, we have the $300K-per-year LAFD diversity Deputy Chief Kristine Larson, who defended DEI hiring practices in a video. Speaking of female firefighters, she stated, when people ask, “‘Is she strong enough to do this?’ or ‘You couldn’t carry my husband out of a fire,’ [to] which my response is, ‘he got himself into a wrong place if I have to carry him out of a fire.'” This led Fox’s Greg Gutfeld to say, “If you get trapped in a fire, don’t count on this DEI hire.” Our next Clue accusation is DEI hire Deputy Chief Kristine Larson, with the big salary, who is not going to help you anyway.
Joe Kovacs served up another scapegoat in a Jan. 12 “news” article, with the help of a right-wing former congressman:
A longtime adviser to President-elect Donald Trump is blaming nonsensical, “radical” policies of the Green New Deal for this week’s catastrophic fires across Southern California.
Former U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the former House Intelligence Committee chairman, appeared on “Sunday Morning Futures” on the Fox News Channel, where host Maria Bartiromo asked him point blank:
“So you’re saying as a result of the Green New Deal, as a result of the climate change agenda of the Democrats and the Biden administration and the Gavin Newsom administration, they stopped logging? They stopped the the farmers from allowing the animals to graze, and they stopped storing water because of the climate change agenda?”
Nunes reponded: “Yeah. This radical idea. I mean, this green, new economy is really a red one. It’s one that a brings on death and devastation. And these policies have been going on in California for a long time.[“]
Jim Breslo, meanwhile, served up his own scapegoat in a Jan. 15 column:
As officials investigate what caused Los Angeles’ devastating fires, I know the answer. It was the homeless. The L.A. Fire Department reports that 54% of fires in 2023 were started by homeless individuals. Firefighters responded to almost 14,000 fires that year alone related to homelessness!
Regardless of whether the Pacific Palisades fire was directly started by a homeless person, the extent of the destruction from the fire can be attributed to the homeless. A few months ago, a member of the L.A. City Council reported to me that she spends 80% of her time on the city’s homeless problem. Eighty percent! That does not leave much time to focus on the basic needs of the average taxpaying L.A. resident, such as water, power, sanitation, safety, security, roads, sidewalks, traffic, parks, beaches, schools, firefighting and fire prevention. And when the mayor feels free to jet off to Ghana for a presidential inauguration on the other side of the globe, we cannot assume the other 20% of time is well spent.
In addition, the Council passed a budget for this year providing $1.3 billion for homeless-related expenses. The same budget cut spending on the fire department by $17 million!
That cut was only about 2 percent from the year before, so it was hardly devastating.