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A distraught Los Angeles mother confronted California Gov. Gavin Newsom in the ashen remains of her neighborhood, demanding to know what he was doing about the wildfires devouring the city — to which the embattled governor claimed he was calling President Biden for federal support, but just couldn’t get reception.
“Governor! Governor! I live here, governor! That was my daughter’s school!” said Pacific Palisades resident Rachel Dervish as she chased after Newsom through LA’s carnage Thursday.
“What are you going to do for her?” she said, cornering him alongside his car in an interaction filmed by Sky News.
Newsom, holding up his phone, said he was “literally” calling the president to see about organizing help at that very moment.
But when Dervish asked him to prove it, Newsom said he had no reception.
“Can I hear it, can I hear your call? ’cause I don’t believe it!” Dervish said.
“I’ve tried five times, that’s why I’m walking around to make the call,” Newsom responded. “I’m so sorry, especially for your daughter.”
Dervish then demanded to know what Newsom — who President-elect Trump accused of hindering southern California’s water supply — was doing to help the community, and why things ended up the way they did.
“Why was there no water in the hydrants, governor? Is it going to be different next time?” she asked.
“It has to be, it has to be, of course,” he replied in a hushed tone.
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m doing everything I can,” the governor said. “I will do whatever I can.”
“But you’re not!” she shot back.
Newsom eventually climbed back into his car, saying he was going to call the president, while Dervish kept asking for “an opportunity to at least tell people you’re doing — what you’re saying you’re doing.”
The governor, along with LA Mayor Karen Bass, have been accused of mismanagement over the horrific fires, which are continuing to burn largely unchecked across nearly 30,000 acres of the city.
One of the predominant complaints has been about fire hydrants running out of water as firefighters tried to douse the blazes — a problem Newsom passed off on “local folks” during a CNN interview Wednesday night.
“Look, the local folks are trying to figure that out,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, claiming the hydrants weren’t designed to handle mass fires.
“I mean those hydrants are typical for two or three fires — maybe one fire and you have something of this scale, but again that’s gonna be determined by the local,” he said.
Newsom was even called out directly by Trump, who wrote on Truth Social late Wednesday night, “This is all his fault!!!”
“One of the best and most beautiful parts of the United States of America is burning down to the ground. It’s ashes, and Gavin Newscum [sic] should resign,” he said.
Earlier in the day the president-elect accused Newsom of blocking a law he passed during his first term that diverted water runoff from northern California — with Trump saying Newsom was more focused on saving “worthless fish” than helping his people.
“Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is to blame for this.”
Newsom brushed off Trump’s criticism — saying the incoming president was trying to politicize a disaster.
“People are literally fleeing, people have lost their lives. Kids lost their schools. Families are completely torn asunder. Churches burned down. This guy wanted to politicize? I have a lot of thoughts and I know what I want to say — I won’t,” Newsome told CNN.
