MSNBC’s Joy Reid went in on conservative pundits for spreading falsehoods about the root of the Los Angeles wildfires and local authorities’ response.
Fox News anchor Jesse Watters—who Reid blasted as “Rupert Murdoch’s puppet”—said California can’t get enough water to fight the raging wildfires “because of a stupid fish,” appearing to echo Donald Trump’s baseless claim that the state’s efforts to conserve the endangered Delta smelt led to a water shortage.
Watters and conservative political commentator Megyn Kelly also blasted L.A. fire chief Kristin Crowley for supposedly prioritizing DEI initiatives over filling fire hydrants. Actor James Woods similarly claimed Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass “didn’t fill the reservoir.”
“Oh, the arrogance of the colonizer’s spirit,” Reid said on a Monday episode of The ReidOut. “God forbid they acknowledge that whatever the initial cause of the fires, they were exacerbated by climate change, which has led to rising temperatures, longer fire seasons, and heightened drought conditions.”
Experts have pointed out that regional water reservoirs in Southern California are at historical highs, and that the city’s aging infrastructure isn’t designed to handle blazes as big and as ubiquitous as those that have spread through Los Angeles.
“But the worst part, other than the fires themselves, has been the lies,” Reid said. “Though if there is one thing the billionaire right is, they are consistent. They want California, America’s biggest state economy. Because if they can take California and retrofit it with their ugly right-wing policies … Then the fight for permanent control of America is basically over.”