Meet the Press interview

The same ones you're asking, same ones that people, when I'm in the streets, are asking, yelling about, what the hell happened?

Good to be with you.

Thank you.

Yeah, we have 14,000 people working the line right now. We doubled the National Guard. We have 1,680 out there helping on the logistics 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 – I've said this, we have the winds that have changed. And that allows us to be more resourceful with existing resources, particularly the aerial resources.

I think it will be in terms of just the costs associated with it, in terms of the scale and scope. Don't even 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 coroners, 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.

I think is making sure the life safety focus, property focus is there 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 in new places, new starts.

It’s – 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've got to button up the canyons here as it relates to potential flooding of a lot of atmospheric rivers. 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. Any 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.

Yeah, we’re not going – 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, though 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 that 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 away because we want you to come back, rebuild, and rebuild with higher quality-building standards, more modern standards. We want to make sure that the associated costs with that are not disproportionate, especially in a middle-class community like this.

The same ones you're asking. Same ones that people out on the streets are asking, yelling about, "What the hell happened? What happened to the water system?" Was it – and, by the way, was it just overwhelm? That you had so much that was used? We drew it down. Was it pipes? Was it electricity? Was it 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've been more meaningful? So I want – all of us want to know those answers, and I just don't want to wait because people are asking me. I want to know those facts. I want them objectively determined, and let the chips fall where they may. This is not about finger pointing.

I'm not – 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.

Well, I mean, you're governor of California. You might as well be the mayor of California. We're all in this together. We're all better off when we're all better off, and 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.

I have absolute faith in our community. I have faith in our leaders. I have the faith of our capacity to work together.

Well, I called for him to come out, take a look for himself. We want to do it 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 100% reimbursement, all the resources you could hope for, 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 in reservoirs. The reservoirs are completely full, the state reservoirs here in Southern California. That mis- 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 is very familiar with them.

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 smelt 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.

No, that was months ago. That was after his victory. So, I look forward to him again coming out here in the spirit of cooperation–

No. No.

No.

Well, I mean, he's done it in Utah. He's done it 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 the context of someone threatening our first responders in terms of supporting the immediacy of their needs or recovery of our community –

Well, I mean, it's what he said. He said, "I'm not going to support the fire-fighting 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 is 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.

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 100%." 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, the most difficult time in their life.

Correct.

That's right.

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 of 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.

My humble position, and it's not just being naively optimistic, that only reinforces the imperative in moving quickly, doing it 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 L.A. 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 the 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. We already have a team looking at reimagining L.A. 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.

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, with 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.