right now Donald Trump is in California meeting with officials after looking at the Wildfire Devastation uh Trump was greeted on the tarmac by the state's Democratic governor Gavin Newsome who he has blamed for the Wildfire response standing next to Newsome Trump told reporters quote we are going to take care of things which is a very different tone than he had just earlier today when he's talking about punishing California while visiting areas affected by Hurricane Helen in North Carolina which voted for Trump uh which obviously makes a big difference in his mind Trump floated the idea
of withholding aid from California in the midst of the most expensive natural disaster of all time if they did not Implement voter ID he also said he wants to get rid of or overhaul the Federal Emergency Management agency better known as FEMA of course that's the federal agency responsible for coordinating with state and local agencies after natural disasters Congressman Robert garc is a Democrat who represents parts of Los Angeles County and he joins me now um I want to play for you uh what he said about FEMA cuz I think a lot of people obviously
disaster relief is difficult people have had all kinds of run the range of experiences with FEMA and often they're interfacing with FEMA at the most difficult moment of their lives so there can be frustrations um but whether you think this is a good idea take a listen I'll also be signed an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA or maybe getting rid of FEMA I think frankly FEMA is not good um obviously the president can't unilaterally get rid of FEMA it's it's congressionally constituted what do you think of that I
mean look I it's hard to know what to think of um of the president's visit today I'm I'm here back home in California the fires have been completely devastating I'm glad that the governor was able to greet him in a way um that looks like there could be some partnership um but we shouldn't trust Donald Trump he has been very clear that he wants to condition Aid Mike Johnson and the Republicans in the house have said the exact same thing and just hours before his visit he's putting conditions on what he's going to essentially ask
for from our state and so we should have conditions and absolutely what we should not be doing is eliminating FEMA this is an agency with Incredible people men and women who have worked to rescue literally rescue people's lives their livelihoods and help people rebuild in emergencies these are some of the best Emergency Management people in the world work for female and and he just wants to just eliminate it just uh with the stroke of a pen and so I I I'm glad the president is there clearly we we need that support um but I'm not
sure which Donald Trump we're going to get in the next hour or the next day what we need is an unconditional support and declaration that we're going to get our disaster Aid with no conditions and of course that's exactly what happened in mirrored disasters including uh just last year uh for the the victims of Hurricane Helen oh there there was no conditions put on it there was no Democrats asking for that it was not thinkable I want to note that the FEMA reform or privatization or abolition uh like many of the things that have come
up in the first week of the Trump Administration does uh is echoed in Project 2025 which he said he' never read and had nothing to do with um they talk about the opportunity to include privatizing FEMA reforming it or shift the majority of preparedness response cost to States and localities instead of the federal government which of course is what he's talking about I'm sure it's just a coincidence it it aligns there uh one one thing that's sort of I don't want to get two in the weeds of of some of his more absurd delusions but
my understanding of the condition of Aid as I heard it discussed by your colleagues who are Republicans is that at least they were plausibly connecting it to some policy around how fires are dealt with but today he says voter ID like it is nothing to do with oh we're going to condition a if you do this about like your land use he wants voter ID for California because as he told Dr Phil if Jesus counted the votes he would have won California and and by the way you need an ID you need to have actual
identification to vote in California to register to vote that's a b that's very basic so I'm not sure the president or the Republicans in the house know what they're talking about and yes Chris you're absolutely right in Project 25 it literally says to eliminate FEMA and to essentially give those funds to the States President Trump repeated that today and so project 2025 is here and to and to think that we're going to implement take away federal aid move it to the states in times of major disasters um is not acceptable and I think Democrats in
in the house and Congress have been pretty clear this is a nonstarter we will not support conditioning Aid certainly not to um some bizarre way of treating fires which um is is not really realistic um but but obviously not to policy and to state law back in the state of California and so look I hope I hope the president has a good visit I think the governor is doing a great job we need our disaster Aid and we absolutely should not be eliminating FEMA for disasters across the country which are likely to happen again in
the future Fel quickly the president has some very strange fixations and I think false ideas about California hydrology uh where water comes from I think he's confused a a set of beefs that the Central Valley Farmers have about California water man from the sieras with the way that Los Angeles gets water and now he he's talking about opening up is there some Secret store of water that's not open that if you open would solve Southern California's fires absolutely not and I know he's just signing some executive order right now that's uh somehow opening up water
supplies from the north I I mean unfortunately that is um a a bizarre fairy tale that he's living in that just does not exist we have a water supply the cause of these fires let's be Crystal Clear have been a historic winds that have come through and moved fires across the LA region and across Southern California we are seeing the climate crisis here in California we are seeing these winds that are uh moving these fires at quick speeds that has been the main cause it has not been a water issue and yes there are infrastructure
Investments that need to be made as it need to be made AC Ross the country um what we really need is that commitment on disaster relief and so I I think this executive order and this his fixation on this water issue is um is bizarre
