Jacob Soboroff (00:00):
Governor Gavin Newsom, welcome back to Meet the Press.
Governor Gavin Newsom (00:02):
Good to be with you.
Jacob Soboroff (00:02):
Thank you so much for doing this.
Governor Gavin Newsom (00:04):
Thank you.
Jacob Soboroff (00:05):
Six different wildfires raging right now. Do you have the resources to combat all these fires at this hour?
Governor Gavin Newsom (00:11):
Yeah, we got 14,000 people working the line right now. We doubled the National Guard. We have 1,680 out there helping on the logistic side. I was just with folks from Mexico. 73 folks will be relieving some of our hand crews. We've got nine states that are now providing, under this EMAC system support, so we've got the resources, but we have more important… So this, we have the winds that have changed and that allows us to be more resourceful with existing resources, particularly the aerial resources.
Jacob Soboroff (00:39):
What's the mission of the National Guard here in Southern California?
Governor Gavin Newsom (00:42):
A combination of factors. We have the rattlesnake teams that are doing the line and working with the hand crews. We have other logistics packages happening, and we saw our first MAFs, which are these folks that are doing retardant, which are military planes and the guards leading that operations. So, it's a combination of all those factors, and of course fundamentally 600 plus just focusing on looting and making sure there's law and order on the streets.
Jacob Soboroff (01:05):
Well, there goes… I may as well acknowledge it. There goes another one of your choppers. How many aircraft do you have deployed right now?
Governor Gavin Newsom (01:12):
There's many as the traffic control can handle. Aircraft resources are not an issue. We've got fixed wing up today and then you saw last night, particularly over the last couple of days, just battling the nighttime blazes. By the way, technology that didn't exist a few years ago. The state did not have the resource of these fire hawks that allowed night vision, six hours, night goggles. These guys laid down the lines in the Palisade, almost half a billion gallons to try to hold the line there on the ridge so it didn't come down into the canyon, the Bel Air area and parts of Brentwood. So it's just remarkable the heroism of these folks. It's remarkable, the mutual aid system. I mean, you meet folks from Oregon that are working with folks from Kern County that are working folks overseas that I've never met, and its hand and glove. It's really inspiring.
Jacob Soboroff (02:02):
In your opinion, is this or will it be the worst national disaster in the history of the United States?
Governor Gavin Newsom (02:07):
I think it will be in terms of just the costs associated with it, in terms of the scale and scope. I don't need to remind the folks in California, we had the Tubbs Fire, 5,600 houses were lost, and of course Camp Fire, we had 18,000 housing units lost and 85 people that lost their lives. Currently, we're getting confirmation from the coroner, so we always have to be careful on the death toll, but it's in the 13 range and I've got search and rescue teams out. We've got cadaver dogs out and there's likely to be a lot more.
Jacob Soboroff (02:42):
What is your biggest concern over the course of the next 48 hours?
Governor Gavin Newsom (02:45):
I think is making sure the life safety focus, the property focus is there is at the same time we're addressing the perimeter issues. The challenge is the winds. We've got these winds coming back this evening, Sunday night, we've got peak winds on Monday. We're going to see 50 plus mile an hour gusts, subject to change. So now we're pre-positioning assets and we're pre-positioning not just here in the theater, those existing five plus fires, but now broadening that to a number of other counties and moving farther south with some of those resources in anticipation. We could see some flare-ups and new places, new starts.
Jacob Soboroff (03:20):
You're here with us on Meet the Press to announce a new executive order. What is this executive order? What are you hoping to accomplish?
Governor Gavin Newsom (03:26):
Look, we've got to be thinking three weeks, three months, three years ahead. At the same time, we're focusing on the immediacy, which is life safety and property. And so, that's exactly what we're doing with disaster assistance, making sure people are getting their applications, addressing the issue of fraud, and that's an issue we've got to address, price gouging, so executive orders on price gouging, recovery. We want to get inspections. Units like this, we want to get our inspection teams out here. They're already starting to get out here. We've come up with some timelines so we can get within the next few weeks, all that done so people can get their insurance claims. We can then start the big contracts to remove the debris, to address all the hazmat issues. Same time as I got to button up the canyons here as it relates to potential flooding, with of a lot of atmospheric rivers.
(04:08)
Remember, we're in the middle of winter, this is January. In fact, the day of this fire, not a stone's throw away as the crow flies, there was snow right up the mountain here, the same day as this devastating fire here in Altadena. And so, all those things have to happen concurrently. But here's the big thing, I'm worried about issues of rebuilding as it relates to scarcity, as it relates to property taxes, meaning scarcity of resources, materials, personnel. I'm worried about time to getting these projects done, and so we want to fast track by eliminating any CEQA requirements. I've got Coastal Act changes that we're making. I want to make sure when someone rebuilds that they have their old property tax assessments and that they're not increased. So all of that's been done in the executive order we just announced.
Jacob Soboroff (04:59):
CEQA, Governor, and the Coastal Act are both environmental regulations, and if you're going to be suspending those temporarily, are you concerned about problems that may result from the suspension of those environmental regulations, and a potential abuse by developers?
Governor Gavin Newsom (05:11):
Yeah, we're not going to… And within this executive order, we frame those abuses. We basically bookmark that in the context of maintaining the existing footprints on the Coastal Act. They allow just a 10% variant, so we're going to be very mindful of that. California leads the nation in environmental stewardship. I'm not going to give that up, but one thing I won't give into is delay. Delay is denial for people. Lives, traditions, places torn apart, torn asunder, families, schools, community centers, churches. You've seen it. The number of schools that have been lost in this community, and we've got to let people know, we have their back. We're going to be back. We're going to do it efficiently and effectively. Don't turn your back. Don't walk because we want you to come back, rebuild, and rebuild with higher quality building standards, more modern standards, and we want to make sure that the associated costs with that are not disproportionate, especially in a middle-class community like this.
Jacob Soboroff (06:10):
You've also called for an independent investigation into the issues around water supply that we've seen. What are the questions that you're hoping to answer?
Governor Gavin Newsom (06:16):
The same ones you're asking, same ones that people when I'm in the streets are asking, yelling about, "What the hell happened? What happened to the water system?" And by the way, was it just overwhelmed that you had so much that was used, we drew it down. Was it pipes, was it electricity? It was a combination of pipes, electricities, and pumps. Was that drawdown impossible, because you lost seven plus thousand structures right here anyway, and every single structure we lost had a pipe that was leaking and we would've lost that water pressure anyway? Did it contribute in any way to our inability to fight the fire or were 99 mile an hour winds determinative and there was really no firefight that could have been more meaningful. So, all of us want to know those answers and I just don't want to wait because people asking me. I want to know those facts, I want them objectively determined and that the chips follow where they may. This is not about finger point.
Jacob Soboroff (07:10):
You say what to people who insist that these independent investigations or calls for them, are you passing the blame onto other people?
Governor Gavin Newsom (07:17):
How could it be when we're doing an independent investigation and we just want the adjudication of the facts? As I say, it's not about finger pointing, it's about answering the questions you and everybody wants answered, and I think there's a propensity to wait to answer those questions, and people want immediacy. They want response and responsiveness, and so that's the idea.
Jacob Soboroff (07:35):
Ultimately here, does the buck stop with you?
Governor Gavin Newsom (07:37):
I mean, you're governor of California, it might be the mayor of California. We're all in this together. We're all better off and we're all better off, we're all better off when we're working together to take care of people and to make sure people are supported. We're empathetic and we're here not just in the immediacy of the crisis, but we're here after the crisis as opposed to creating a crisis in the middle of this by trying to divide people and play political, take cheap political shots.
Jacob Soboroff (08:03):
Do you have faith in Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass?
Governor Gavin Newsom (08:06):
I have absolute faith in our community. I have faith in our leaders. I have the faith of our capacity to work together.
Jacob Soboroff (08:13):
President-elect Trump has blamed you for this crisis. He called you incompetent. What's your response?
Governor Gavin Newsom (08:16):
Well, I called for him to come out, take a look for himself, what we want to do in the spirit of an open hand, not a closed fist. He's the President-elect. I respect the office. We have a President of the United States that within 36 hours provided a major disaster declaration over a text. We had support from the President of the United States, Joe Biden, with a hundred percent reimbursement, all the resources you could hope for or imagine, constant communication. I'd like to extend that to the President-elect. I don't know what he's referring to when he talks about the Delta smelt and reservoirs. The reservoirs are completely full, the state reservoirs here in Southern California. That miss and disinformation, I don't think advantages or aids any of us. Responding to Donald Trump's insults, we would spend another month. I'm very familiar with them. Every elected official that he disagrees with, very familiar with them.
Jacob Soboroff (09:05):
We do know though from reporting here locally that one reservoir that serves the Palisades was not full.
Governor Gavin Newsom (09:10):
And that's exactly what triggered my desire to get the investigation to understand what was happening with that local reservoir. That was not a state system reservoir, which the President-elect was referring to as it relates to the Delta and somehow connecting the Delta smelt to this fire, which is inexcusable because it's inaccurate, also incomprehensible to anyone that understands water policy in the state.
Jacob Soboroff (09:34):
My understanding is that you have put a call into President-elect Trump. Has he called you back?
Governor Gavin Newsom (09:37):
No, that was months ago. That was after his victory. So, I look forward to him again coming out here in the spirit of-
Jacob Soboroff (09:44):
Well, you-
Governor Gavin Newsom (09:44):
… cooperation.
Jacob Soboroff (09:45):
Forgive me for interrupting you, but you did invite him to come out here. Have you had any response?
Governor Gavin Newsom (09:48):
No, nothing.
Jacob Soboroff (09:49):
Multiple times, Mr. Trump has threatened to withhold aid for California wildfires, both as President and now again as President-elect. Are you worried that he might actually do that?
Governor Gavin Newsom (09:58):
Well, I mean he's done it Utah, he's done in Michigan, did it in Puerto Rico. He did it to California back before I was even governor in 2018 until he found out folks in Orange County voted for him and then he decided to give the money. So he's been at this for years and years and years. It transcends the states, including by the way, Georgia, he threatened similarly. So that's his style and we take it seriously to the extent that in the past, it's taken a little bit more time. I've been pretty expressive about that in context of someone threatening our first responders in terms of supporting the immediacy of their needs.
Jacob Soboroff (10:38):
That's what you take it as, that President-elect Trump is threatening the first responders here.
Governor Gavin Newsom (10:42):
Well, I mean it's what he said. He said, "I'm not going to support the firefighting efforts. I'm not going to support the state of California as it relates to its emergency management." He made this pretty clear during the election, "Unless they do my bidding." And again, these are familiar terms and they're familiar to a lot of other states, not just my state, and they're familiar to not just me as governor, but the previous governor of California, Governor Brown that was battling with these same things. So you just work through these things and I'm just blessed. I mean this, I'm blessed. On behalf of 40 million Americans that happen to live in California that Joe Biden's President of the United States and did what he did immediately and to the extent that we can work with the same relationship and that same spirit with Donald Trump, I hope we can.
Jacob Soboroff (11:23):
President Biden, last time I saw you in the Palisades on Wednesday right after this fire started, you were on the phone at the side of the road trying to reach President Biden. Subsequent to that, he pledged a hundred percent of the disaster recovery relief for the next six months. Is that enough?
Governor Gavin Newsom (11:40):
Well, it's significant. In fact, when I was on the phone, you saw me on the phone, I was trying to get the satellite phone to work. I asked for 90% and he said, "No, I'm going to do a hundred percent." It was a big deal, 180 days is a big deal, but he also had just provided the major disaster declaration and we did the press conference the next day, and that is profoundly significant because that's individual assistance, disasterassistance.gov, people should go to disasterassistance.gov and start filling out applications, get that immediate relief, and then get longer and medium term relief. But no, he stepped up in a way that an American president should step up and I couldn't be more proud of him. That's not a political statement. That's not because I'm a Democrat saying that. That's because I'm a human being, trying to help other human beings in the most extreme elements in the most difficult time of their life.
Jacob Soboroff (12:32):
As you know, Governor, there are many California residents who have struggled to obtain fire insurance. What happens to these Californians who cannot afford to rebuild?
Governor Gavin Newsom (12:40):
Well, we created, we had a major issue after the Camp Fire. In fact, it was Governor-elect during the Camp Fire and it precipitated in the largest bankruptcy or rather a bankruptcy of the largest utility in the United States of America, PG&E, process of getting them back on their feet and beginning to underground and deal with vegetation of forest management differently in California, which by the way, we've ten-exed the forest management investments in the state since I've become governor, we created a wildfire fund that is around the utility issues on the insurance side. We did an executive order a year ago to do climate modeling and to address some of the wildland urban interface in terms of requiring insurance to be placed before we can increase rates. We have created a fair plan or at least expanded a fair plan, and it has reinsurance. We're assessing as we do the damage assessment, the total value of the claims, and we will determine what to do after we understand the magnitude of those claims.
Jacob Soboroff (13:44):
Some of these Californians in homes that burn like this were thrown off of their policies, their fire policies before this fire season. What do you say to those Californians?
Governor Gavin Newsom (13:52):
No, it breaks your heart. I mean, this is an issue, and by the way, persists in California because of the acuity of the new realities, hot's getting hotter, dry's getting drier, wet's getting wetter. These atmospheric rivers, all the flooding that we've experienced in California, but also across the rest of the United States. You're seeing insurance rates through the roof, et cetera. But here's the point. We've been proactive in trying to stabilize that market. That was the executive order a year and a half ago. Insurance commissioner has been moving in that direction. I'll give you a proof point of some of the success of that. Just a week ago, a major insurer announced they were reinsuring in Paradise, California where the Camp Fire was because people repopulated, farmers said they were coming back. So we are very mindful of that and that's why the Fair Plan is that backup plan. But I'm also mindful this, as someone on the Fair Plan, intimately aware of how it works, it's not the kind of insurance that you get on the private sector, meaning you're not getting as much in terms of that protection.
Jacob Soboroff (14:51):
It also raises questions about whether or not taxpayer dollars should be used to put people back in these highly vulnerable areas like the one we're standing in right now. Should they?
Governor Gavin Newsom (14:59):
Well, to the extent… Look, the issue here, and particularly in Altadena, some of these homes were built in the twenties and thirties and forties when you didn't have the building codes that we have today. You can see, and you saw this, the Camp was a master class of that in the context of seeing why do these buildings survive, these buildings didn't? It's not in every case, I'm not naive about that, but the buildings that tended to survive were ones that were built after 2008 with a higher threshold of building codes. And so as we rebuild, we will have these higher levels of codes and standards that should help protect some of these communities. But I don't want to say to folks that have been here for generations, three generations living in this beautiful middle class neighborhood that now you've got to go.
(15:37)
So we've got to do everything we can to protect them. We got to make sure, and it was the case up in Camp where people are repopulating in Paradise, California, that we have a different system of ingress and egress, redundancy as it relates to emergency preparedness, as it relates to infrastructure. Make sure we underground these wires going forward, make sure the community is more resilient in every way, shape, or form.
Jacob Soboroff (16:01):
Over the course of the next several years, Los Angeles will be host to the World Cup, and then the Super Bowl, and then the Olympics. With this rebuilding effort needing to take place, is LA going to be ready for all of those global events?
Governor Gavin Newsom (16:13):
My humble position, and it's not just being naively optimistic, that only reinforces the imperative moving quickly, doing in the spirit of collaboration and cooperation, President of the United States, Donald Trump, to his credit, was helpful in getting the Olympics to the United States of America, to get it down here in LA. We thank him for that. This is an opportunity for him to shine, for this country to shine, for California and this community to shine, the opportunity with all of that and all that opportunity and that pride and spirit that comes from not just hosting those three iconic games and venues, but also the opportunity, I think, to rebuild at the same time. And that's why we're already organizing a Marshall Plan and we already have a team of looking and reimagining LA 2.0, and we are making sure everyone's included, not just the folks on the coast, people here that were ravaged by this disaster.
Jacob Soboroff (17:07):
You just said you're organizing a Marshall Plan for the rebuilding of California. What is that Marshall Plan? Tell us about this Marshall Plan.
Governor Gavin Newsom (17:12):
For this region, we're just starting to lay out. I mean, we're still fighting these fires, so we're already talking to city leaders. We're already talking to civic leaders. We're already talking to business leaders and nonprofits. We're talking to labor leaders. We're starting to organize how we can put together a collection of individuals on philanthropy for recovery, how we can organize the region, how we can make sure that we are seeking federal assistance for the Olympics more broadly, but also federal assistance for the recovery efforts, and how we can galvanize the community with folks that love this community to really develop a mindset so that at scale, we're dealing with the scope of this tragedy and responding to it at scale with efficiency, like the executive order I talked about, time value of delivering projects, addressing building codes, addressing permitting issues, and moving forward to rebuilding and being more resilient.
Jacob Soboroff (18:07):
Governor Gavin Newsom, thank you so much for joining us on Meet the Press.
Governor Gavin Newsom (18:09):
Good to be back.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
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