From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Mariane Angela

Victor Davis Hanson, Wednesday on Newsmax, slammed the implementation of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) criteria in fire department hiring practices in California.

During an appearance on “Finnerty,” Hanson said these policies prioritize DEI above essential firefighting qualifications like experience and physical readiness. Hanson said that hiring workers based on DEI led to an ill-equipped workforce in the state.

“The DEI fire chief, 70% of her hires have been based on DEI. Not muscularity, not experience, not size, not competence. The primary criterion was DEI. And so the only… thing that is different about this is that this was not the inner city. This was, as Donald Trump mentioned, and I’ve taught at Pepperdine, I just got back from there. This is the most elite area of California,” Hanson told Rob Finnerty.

Hanson also said that there’s a broader failure in California’s management of natural resources and emergency preparedness.

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“This could have been prevented long-term. We’re letting out all of the water that comes out. 90% of the water from the northern rivers goes out to the sea,” Hanson said. “The aqueduct transfers that water down to LA. They should have had more water. They don’t. The insurance system is completely broken because of overregulation, fraud, and mismanagement by the state. So you cannot buy fire insurance in most cases.”

Hanson said that the systemic failures not only threaten the physical landscape but also risk the financial stability of California’s wealthiest communities, potentially resulting in billions of dollars in losses.

“These are the wealthiest zip codes. And if these people, and many of them didn’t have insurance, even they couldn’t, some of them get insurance. And if this is not going to be rebuilt, they’re going to lose billions of dollars of taxpayers, productive citizens,” Hanson said.

Hanson said there is a need to return to merit-based hiring and sensible state management policies to prevent such disasters in the future.

“And it all could have been prevented had we had meritocratic hiring, had we had plenty water, plenty full of water, if we had a different forest policy, a different firefighting policy, a different insurance policy,” Hanson said.

Actor James Woods also criticized how he said the government handled the crisis as wildfires ravaged Los Angeles. He specifically targeted Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom and called him a “blithering idiot.” Woods said the state’s inadequate fire preparedness and response was the result of Newsom’s repeated mismanagement.

Amid the wildfires sweeping through Los Angeles, actor James Woods criticized Wednesday on Fox News the government’s handling of the crisis as the state falters in emergency response.

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Mariane Angela

As wildfires sweep through Los Angeles and as California falters in its emergency response efforts, actor James Woods appeared on Fox News Wednesday to criticize how the government is handling the crisis.

During an appearance on “The Ingraham Angle,” Woods slammed the government’s response in the city, where residents found fire hydrants dry and their homes ablaze. The actor also criticized how Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom has handled the situation. Woods said Newsom is a “blithering idiot” and blamed the governor for what he said was Newsom’s repeated mismanagement of California’s fire preparedness and response.

Woods also directed his attention to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

“The people in charge, she took over and she put on her bio that her priority, my highest priority is inclusion, diversity, and equity. That is my priority. And somebody forgot to fill all the reservoirs, I guess, with water because when I was getting smoke alarms, there was a fire truck parked in front of my house, but they couldn’t pump any water because there was none, because they didn’t put them in the reservoirs,” Woods said.

The actor drew parallels between the current fire crisis and the recent surge in crime within his community. Woods said he attributed both to a lack of competent leadership.

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“It’s the same we had with all the crime we have in our neighborhood, you know, in Los Angeles. When we had that idiot Gascon, you know, they just didn’t care,” Woods told Laura Ingraham. “Everybody was running loose. They were smashing places. You couldn’t walk down the street, you know?”

Woods also said that Newsom’s administration faltered in fulfilling fundamental responsibilities to California during the wildfire.

“If it is true that things were handled this way, if it is true that Gavin Newsom is the absolute blithering idiot that I believe he is in the way he has handled fire management in this state again and again and again and again, this isn’t a wake-up call,” Woods said. “This is the kind of thing they have tribunals for, where they try people and say, you had an oath of office to perform certain duties. When you’re the fire chief, this isn’t a social justice exercise that you’re in charge of.”

Officials from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) faced scrutiny as many of their fire hydrants failed during critical fire outbreaks. As firefighters battled widespread blazes that devastated numerous structures, they discovered that numerous hydrants under LADWP’s management had run dry.