Governor Gavin Newsom was slammed for claiming that reservoirs in southern California were ‘completely full’ when at least one of them has been confirmed to be bone dry.
Newsom made the claim during an interview he gave to NBC’s Meet The Press about his response to the raging wildfires in Los Angeles that have caused 16 deaths and billions of dollars worth of damages.
NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff asked the governor about President-elect Donald Trump’s criticism. Trump argued that Newsom’s efforts to protect a fish called the Delta smelt has stopped water from being delivered to farmers and major cities.
‘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,’ Newsom said.
However, the LA Times reported Friday that the the Santa Ynez Reservoir, a 117-million-gallon water storage complex has been completely empty for over a year. This reservoir serves the Pacific Palisades, an area of west of downtown Los Angeles where a wildfire has grown to about 23,654 acres. Firefighters have only been able to contain 11 percent of the out-of-control blaze.
DailyMail.com further revealed that this reservoir was left disconnected by Department of Water and Power (LADWP) CEO Janisse Quiñones.
On top of that, fire hydrants usually fed by the reservoir were left broken for months before the fires, leading to firefighters running out of water as they battled the devastating blazes.
The reservoir was taken offline in recent months to repair a tear in its cover that exposed the water and potentially impacted its drinkability.
When confronted about this, Newsom simply said Santa Ynez ‘was not a state system reservoir.’
Governor Gavin Newsom sat down with NBC’s Meet The Press to address how he’s handling the wildfire crisis in California so far
Residents embrace outside of a burning property as the Eaton Fire swept through Wednesday, January 8, 2025 in Altadena, California
Pictured: The Santa Ynez Reservoir in the Pacific Palisades, the area with perhaps the worst ongoing wildfire
Newsom also faced backlash for his ‘over-the-top’ body language in the wide-ranging interview.
Newsom, wearing a untucked black button down with a pair of jeans, spoke with his hands all throughout the 18-minute-long conversation that took place in Altadena, a community that’s been ravaged by the Eaton Fire.
He often clapped and made other big gesticulations as he answered questions about the catastrophic blazes – which are now some of the worst in the city’s history.
The California Gov. also suggested that LA’s failed water system is to blame for the crisis – while claiming that he was not trying to point fingers at anyone in particular for the death and destruction.
As of Sunday morning, the Eaton Fire currently spans 14,005 acres, and the Kenneth Fire, although now 100 percent contained, has blazed 1,052 acres of land.
In the highly-criticized interview, Newsom signaled that he didn’t know why all three water storage tanks in the Pacific Palisades – each holding about 1 million gallons –had run dry right as the fires began last week.
‘Was it pipes? Was it electricity? It was a combination of pipes, electricities, and pumps,’ Newsom told NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff as he rocked back and forth and threw up his hands. ‘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?’
Pictured: Gavin Newsom looks on as a wildfire rages in an affluent area of Los Angeles on January 7. The governor was slammed for this picture, with some claiming it was a photo-op
One person reacting to the interview on X picked up on the governor’s restless movements and said: ‘Who the hell is he dancing with?’
Another said: ‘Watching Gavin Newsome (sic) his body language and speech suggests he is overwhelmed.’
‘At the beginning of his interview, the first thing he does is start waving his fingers,’ a third pointed out.
‘His physical gestures are over the top and distracting,’ another watcher thought.
One person shifted their anger to Soboroff, the interviewer, and claimed he wasn’t pushing Newsom hard enough.
‘If you had an ounce of integrity or shame @jacobsoboroff, you’d resign for this obsequious joke of an interview & give your job to the woman who cornered Newsom in the street with real Qs after her community burned down,’ they wrote.
Shortly after the panned interview, Newsom announced he had deployed 1,000 additional members of the state’s National Guard to Los Angeles to help respond to the wildfires. There are now a total of 2,500 service members on the ground.
The interview covered topics such as Newsom’s culpability in the crisis, Trump’s condemnation of the state’s wildfire response and new executive orders the governor is pursuing to provide relief to Californians.
Newsom denied he was playing the blame game by opening an independent investigation into why the reservoirs were empty.
President-elect Donald Trump has hurled insults at Newsom and said he didn’t accept federal help from him when he was president that would have helped prevent fires
‘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 want answered,’ he said.
‘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?”‘
In total, 16 people have lost their lives, 12,300 structures have been destroyed, and 40,300 acres have been burned.
Newsom put the death toll at a more conservative 13 and said his office is still getting information from coroners, adding ‘there’s likely to be a lot more.’
He said search and rescue teams and cadaver dogs are out searching for the deceased.
When asked if the buck stops with him, Newsom replied: ‘I mean, you’re governor of California. It 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 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.’
The conversation soon shifted to President-elect Donald Trump, who has blamed Newsom for the wildfires.
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Trump said that the governor, who he referred to as ‘Gavin Newscum’ – a favorite of the Republican’s pet names – refused to accept preemptive help from the federal government back when he was president.
‘Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.
To address the damage caused to people’s homes and buildings around the city, Newsom announced he’d be issuing executive orders on ‘price gouging’ and ‘recovery.’
He also said the executive orders will help people get their insurance claims ‘within the next few weeks.’
When it comes to rebuilding, Newsom signaled he’d be relaxing the rigid environmental review processes that often make development difficult in California.
‘We want to fast-track by eliminating any [California Environmental Quality Act] requirements. I’ve got 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,’ he said.
Newsom also thanked President Joe Biden for pledging to cover 100 percent of disaster related costs in California for the next 180 days. Early estimates suggest damages could cost as much as $150 billion.
‘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,’ he said.
Firefighter near a fire road above Mandeville Canyon during the Palisades Fire on January 11, 2025
A firefighting helicopter drops water on the Palisades Fire on January 10, 2025
Newsom was also criticized for using the horrific fires to slyly boost his future political gambits.
The day before the interview with NBC, Newsom posted a link to californiafirefacts.com, a website set up by his campaign committee, in response to what he said was misinformation people were spreading about the wildfires.
At first, the site looks innocuous. It contains a list of claims the governor’s office either finds to be misleading or incorrect with rebuttals underneath.
If you scroll all the way down, there’s a box that allows users to donate to the California Fire Foundation, a nonprofit that provides assistance to firefighters and survivors of wildfire natural disasters.
If you donate to the organization through Newsom’s link though, you automatically consent to receiving campaign text messages from his Super PAC ‘Campaign for Democracy.’
Another recent criticism against the governor is that he is supposedly allowing looting during the fires. This claim came most prominently from Elon Musk, who’s become a loyal confidant to Trump as he prepares to take the White House.
Newsom bristled at the accusation and replied to Musk on X: ‘Stop encouraging looting by lying and telling people it’s decriminalized. It’s not.’
The latest victim of this fire-induced crime spree is Vice President Kamala Harris, whose home in Brentwood was broken into by two men.
The LAPD was called to the scene around 4:30 a.m. but the men were not on the property when they were arrested.
Law enforcement sources told NBC Los Angeles, ‘they likely had no idea where they were.’
The two men were detained for breaking curfew, but released after police found no evidence they were committing a crime, reported KTLA.
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