California Is Finished: More Than 50 Percent of Californians Don’t Blame Bass for Fires

The Los Angeles area fires have charred the popularity of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass while showing a deep division in who respondents blame for the fires.

“Both of them are stone-cold incompetent,” President-elect Donald Trump has said, according to Reuters.

Bass, in particular, came in for criticism because she did not immediately return from a trip to Ghana when the first fires broke out.

Take a drive down Pacific Coast Highway in Los Angeles, California after the Pacific Palisades fire

Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass must be held accountable for this

This was one of the most iconic drives anywhere in the world. LA history gone. pic.twitter.com/OEcxtwmYGm

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) January 15, 2025

A Daily Mail / J.L. Partners poll showed that more respondents believe that Bass and Newsom have some level of responsibility for the fires than those who do not, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail.

Poll results show that 28 percent of those polled believe Newsom is “a great deal responsible” for the fires, while 20 percent say he is “somewhat responsible,” meaning 48 percent hold him at least somewhat responsible for the fires.

Twenty-four percent of those polled said the governor was “not at all responsible” for the fires while 18 percent said he was “not very responsible.” In other words, 42 percent of those responding more or less absolved him from blame.

California has the best land and worst government in America.

Gavin Newsom’s failed water and forest management policies helped turn what could be manageable fires into devastating infernos.

And Trump called it months ago on his interview with Joe Rogan.

Here’s are details. pic.twitter.com/yXLt2J7fYS

— Kaizen D. Asiedu (@thatsKAIZEN) January 8, 2025

Ten percent of those responding said they did not know who to blame.

When it came to Bass, 22 percent said she was “a great deal responsible” with 25 percent saying she is “somewhat responsible,” for a combined total of 47 percent of respondents assigning her some level of blame.

Twenty-seven percent of those responding to the survey said Bass was “not at all responsible,” while 11 percent said she was “not very responsible,” meaning 38 percent don’t lay the blame for the fires on Bass.

Karen Bass @MayorOfLA and @GavinNewsom should be replaced immediately. We already knew that the city and state was being mismanaged, before these fire disasters. This will only get worse. I am not willing to find out how unprepared the city and state is for a major earthquake,… https://t.co/3Ec0EMAXGQ

— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) January 15, 2025

Fifteen percent of those responding said they did not know whether to blame Bass or not.

The poll also asked about President Joe Biden, with 17 percent holding him “a great deal responsible” and 10 percent “somewhat responsible,” while 37 percent said he was “not at all responsible” and 28 percent said Biden was “not very responsible.” Eight percent did not respond with a position.

The Mail did not reveal the mechanics of the poll or its margin of error.

A New York Post editorial was not shy in offering its verdict on Bass and Newsom.

In discussing Bass, the Post editorial wrote that “apart from vacantly staring at a reporter who asked if she had anything to say to the voters she left to die and the long-belated offer of platitudes like ‘Reject those who seek to divide us,’ she’s done nothing meaningful since she got back” from her African trip.

“The L.A. fires and the Newsom/Bass flailfest remind us that political leadership really does matter — and that in moments of disaster, it’s all that matters,” the Post editorial wrote.

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