CNN senior political analyst John Avlon accused President Donald Trump of blaming “the victim” in the president’s tweet about the California wildfires, adding his “impulse is to divide” America.
“The wildfires raging in California are already the deadliest in Golden State history, claiming 44 lives with over 100 people still missing and burning more than 200,000 acres across the state,” Avlon said on “New Day” Tuesday.
He then read Trump’s Saturday tweet that blamed forest management for the fires and accused them of wasting billions of dollars in taxpayer funds. (RELATED: American Flag Survives California Wildfires And Now Two Cops Are On A Mission To Find Its Rightful Owner)
There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 10, 2018
“The president’s claims have been attacked as misleading, uninformed and just plain wrong,” Avlon said.
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Avlon said the blazes in California aren’t even considered forest fires and quoted the Pasadena Fire Association, which told Trump he was incorrect, before asking him to see the damage for himself. Avlon also claimed climate change played a role in the disaster and chastised Trump for ignoring the threat.
“At a time when people are suffering, lives lost, homes destroyed and entire towns burnt to the ground, President Trump’s first public statement on the tragedy was not of a comforter-in-chief. Instead, his impulse was to blame the victim, as it often is,” he continued.
“You may recall Trump’s persistent attacks against the Americans who suffered and died in Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria. The president’s latest insult to the American island, is a new White House proposal which would cut off federal disaster relief funding to Puerto Rico. A president’s job is to help not hurt.”
“But somehow this president’s impulse is to try to divide us even while Americans are united in their solidarity with the suffering,” Avlon concluded.
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