Harris comes home to tour ‘utterly predictable’ damage
Democratic vice presidental candidate says it’s time to take climate change seriously
FRESNO >> Seven weeks before Election Day, California’s devastating wildfires brought Sen. Kamala Harris home Tuesday for her first public appearance in the Golden State as the Democratic vice presidential candidate.
And in a campaign completely upended by the coronavirus pandemic, the image of Harris that Democrats hope will stick with voters is one of a candidate in khaki boots and a utility jacket bumping elbows with California’s firefighters and shelter workers, not rubbing them with coastal elites.
At stops in the charred Sierra foothills at a grade school, Red Cross shelter and fire station surrounded by the destructive Creek Fire, Harris lamented the partisan divide over what’s behind California’s record wildfire season and insisted it is time “to take seriously these extreme changes in our climate.”
“Every time, you folks are out there fighting the fires and knowing your homes might be burning.” — Sen. Kamala Harris
“Sadly, these wildfires and the devastation they cause are utterly predictable,” Harris said, speaking alongside Gov. Gavin Newsom on the edge of a school playground melted by the Creek fire, which has burned more than 220,000 acres and destroyed more than 550 homes and structures since Labor Day weekend.
Her visit came a day after President Trump met Newsom in Sacramento for a wildfire briefing. While Trump continued to blame California and Western states for failing to aggressively clear the forests of “matchsticks” of fallen trees, Democratic nominee Joe Biden attacked the president as a “climate arsonist” in denial of a warming planet that is intensifying the blazes.
Harris and Newsom continued that theme Tuesday as ashes drifted down.
Newsom listed the toll the wildfires have taken across California: 25 lives lost, 4,200 homes and structures destroyed, 14,000 lightning strikes over a three-day period last month and 25 major fire complexes across the state. In the last 30 days, 2.8 million acres have burned. Since January, it has been 3.3 million acres. This year, California has experienced five of its 20 largest fires on record.
“Climate change is real,” Newsom said. “If you don’t believe in science, come to California and observe with your own eyes.”
For Harris, Tuesday’s return offered a brief chance to come home and show voters in a Republican section of deeply Democratic California how she could impact the race for the White House in this anything-but-typical socially-distanced campaign.
“It would have looked really bad if the president had come to California but our own senator had not,” said Melissa Michelson, at Menlo College. “Even though he may have said Trumpy things like I don’t believe the science, even more so, the Biden campaign needs to send someone.”
What the Biden campaign needs from Harris has taken on new meaning in a campaign reinvented by the pandemic. Harris’ star power among Democrats was on display Monday during a Zoom campaign fundraiser with Hillary Clinton and the two comedians who impersonate them on Saturday Night Live: Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph.
The event raised more than $6 million dollars from more than 100,000 donors.
“They were joking around. Amy Poehler couldn’t get the mute button to turn on,” Michelson said. Harris “came across as very authentic and funny. Watching these four women have a fun conversation, it felt intimate.”
Besides, she said, “life has moved to Zoom. Their campaign has shifted to Zoom. In a way that makes them more accessible.”
Tuesday, Harris took on a different tone in a dire setting with Newsom, a familiar ally who has been buffeted by a series of crises throughout 2020. In the Central Valley, Harris’ motorcade passed cattle ranches, orchards and a campaign sign for Rep. Devin Nunes, Trump’s biggest backer in California, before heading to foothills cloaked in thick smoke. Some protesters followed the motorcade to a Red Cross shelter, waving flags and one sign that read, “Manage forests not freedoms.”
Tuesday, Harris tried stressing the personal more than the political. She thanked firefighters and shared that her brother-in-law is a firefighter in Santa Cruz, saying, “He surfs!”
She shared her admiration with emergency crews.
“Every time, you folks are out there fighting the fires and knowing your homes might be burning,” she said.
She talked about seeing the remains of burned homes.
“Those chimneys remind me of tombstones. These are the stories behind these fires,” she said.
She thanked the volunteers at the Red Cross shelter, telling one woman who has been working 13 hours each day: “It takes so much sacrifice.”