LA mayor: Trump has head ‘in the sand’
PORTLAND: Officials in West Coast states where record fires have killed 35 people accused President Donald Trump on Sunday of being in denial about climate change, as he and political rival Kamala Harris prepared to meet emergency workers in California.
“This is climate change, and this is an administration that’s put its head in the sand,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, speaking on CNN’s ‘State of the Union.’
Trump plans to meet Monday with the heads of California’s emergency services, battling history-making infernos that have now burned through nearly five million acres (two million hectares) across the US West, an area roughly the size of the state of New Jersey.
Harris, the Democratic vicepresidential candidate who tweeted that Trump ‘denied evidence’ the flames were ‘fueled and intensified by the climate crisis,’ will also travel to California to assess the damage and meet fire officials.
Of at least 35 people killed by the blazes since the beginning of summer, 27 died this week alone. Dozens were still missing. Trump has made little comment about the blazes in recent weeks, but at a Nevada campaign event on Saturday he acknowledged the scope of the disaster.
“They never had anything like this,” said Trump, who systematically downplays global warming. “Please remember the words, very simple, forest management.”
Garcetti hit back, saying that “anybody that lives in California is insulted by that. Talk to a firefighter if you think that climate change isn’t real... This isn’t about forest management or raking.” With battle lines drawn ahead of November’s election, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is also due to address the wildfires and their cause Monday. He recently called the threat of climate change ‘undeniable’ and ‘existential.’
Much of the West Coast remained coated in dense smog through Sunday, with Portland by a distance the world’s most airpolluted city according to IQAir.
“It’s apocalyptic,” Washington state Governor Jay Inslee told ABC’s ‘This Week.’
“It’s maddening right now we have this cosmic challenge to our communities, the entire West Coast of the United States on fire, to have a president to deny that these are not just wildfires, these are climate fires,” he said.