Vance Rips ‘Serious Lack Of Competent Governance’ In California As Wildfires Destroy LA Area

Vice President-elect JD Vance condemned the “serious lack of competent governance” in California as firefighters in the Democrat-led state try to fend off wildfires that have devastated places around the city of Los Angeles over the past week.

During an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” anchor Shannon Bream said she wanted to discuss the emergency situation in Southern California — in which thousands of homes have been destroyed by the wind-fueled blazes and at least 14 people have been killed — because Vance and President-elect Donald Trump will soon be sworn into office.

“Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, has written to President Trump saying, let’s not be divisive right now, come out and visit, let people see us working together. Any indication the president-elect may do that?” Bream asked.

“Well, I know the president would love to visit California. And first of all, you know, our hearts go out to everybody who has been affected by the storms. I’ve seen some of these videos of people where, you know, folks who have lived in those homes for 25, 30, 35 years, and everything is gone. And whatever your political affiliation, it’s hard not to see those images and just be heartbroken for our fellow Americans who are going through a very tough time,” Vance said.

“And I do think, frankly, the federal government has to do a better job. President Trump is committed to doing a better job when it comes to disaster relief,” he added. “That’s true for the hurricane victims and flood victims in North Carolina. It’s true for the fire victims in California. We just — we have to do a better job. We need competent good governance. Now that doesn’t mean you can’t criticize the governor of California for, I think, some very bad decisions over a very long period of time.”

Vance added: “I mean, some of these reservoirs have been dry for 15, 20 years. The fire hydrants are being reported as going dry while the firefighters are trying to put out these fires. There is a serious lack of competent governance in California. And I think it’s part of the reason why these fires have gotten so bad. We need to do a better job at both the state and federal level.”

Bream then noted there are “skeptics” concerned about what the Trump-Vance administration will do when it comes to giving aid to California.

“They’re citing back to something that the president-elect said in September when he said, ‘We won’t give him money to put out all his fires, and if we don’t give him the money to put out his fires, he’s got problems.’ Is there any consideration of withholding aid to Californians?” she asked.

“Hey, look, President Trump cares about all Americans, right? He is the president for all Americans,” Vance replied. “And I think that he intends to have FEMA and other federal responses much, much better and much more clued in to what’s going on there on the ground. You know, President Biden has been asleep at the wheel for a number of different crises. And I think this — this the final California fire, as it’s really going — getting out of control in Biden’s last week and a half, I do think it drives home, just again, we’ve had incompetent governance for so long.”

He continued:  “You know, President Trump often says that the coalition that made him the president was just a common-sense coalition. There are conservatives, there are moderates, there are even a few liberals, but the thing that united us is just this basic idea that, yes, government should be smaller but when government does the things that should do, it ought to do them well. And that’s one of the things that President Trump and I are going to fight to get back to.”

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