President-elect Donald Trump’s Homeland Security nominee criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom over his handling of the Los Angeles wildfires at a Senate confirmation hearing Friday.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) blamed Newsom, a Democrat, for the blazes that have killed more than 20 people and destroyed 11,000 buildings, even as she vowed to provide disaster aid “according to the law,” rather than politics.
“Leadership has consequences,” Noem said at the hearing on her nomination to run the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “What’s happening in California is the ramification of many decisions over many years.
“I wish that we would have had different leadership and a different governor in California or we might have a different result there,” Noem said at another point.
