Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, whose district includes the city of Los Angeles, claimed during a NewsNation interview on Friday that she isn’t “playing politics” with the destructive wildfires sweeping through the region in calling for higher taxes on “the rich.”
In an interview with host Chris Cuomo, Waters — herself a multimillionaire — made the excuse that “services cost money” in response to the resources needed to combat the blazes, though residents of her city and the state of California already pay some of the highest taxes in the country.
“I’m not into the blame game. I’m not into talking about whether or not Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is trying to protect himself and run for president, none of that,” Waters told Cuomo.
“The first thing we’ve got to understand is, services cost money, and we should be willing to get the richest people in this country, the richest 1% that is protected, make sure they pay their fair taxes so that we can have the money to provide the services,” she began.
“With that money and with those resources, the people who have been selected or elected to do the job should do the job. I don’t care who it is. It could be Democrat, it could be Republican, it could be whatever,” she continued. “But the fact of the matter is, we all should have heavy hearts right now, but we should have faith and we should be on point by making sure that we do everything to help the people that need us.
“Dammit, you can do the politics later. You can come and talk about Gavin Newsom later. You can talk about the Democrats later,” she insisted.
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According to IRS data, the richest 1 percent of earners pay nearly 41 percent of all federal income taxes.
“The top 5% pay more than 65% of federal income taxes, the highest 10% pay 75% of them and the top 25% are accountable for 89%. The bottom half of earners, who make below $46,627 a year, paid just 2% of federal personal income tax,” CBS Austin reported in October.
Meanwhile, Newsom, along with L.A. Mayor and former U.S. congresswoman Karen Bass, are both being blamed for a series of failures that critics say have exacerbated the damage and loss of life.
On Sunday, Vice President-elect JD Vance slammed false claims that the incoming administration planned to withhold emergency wildfire aid after anchor Shannon Bream asked Vance about what the president-elect said at a press conference in Los Angeles in September 2024.
“We won’t give him money to put out all his fires,” Trump said of Newsom. “And if we don’t give him the money to put out his fires, he’s got problems.”
After Bream asked if Trump planned to follow through, Vance responded that the objective is to ensure federal aid dollars are more efficiently delivered and spent. “No, look, President Trump cares about all Americans, right? He is the president for all Americans. And I think that he intends to have FEMA and other federal responses much, much better and much more clued into what’s going on there on the ground,” Vance said.
Asked about Newsom’s invitation for Trump to visit his state, Vance said, “I know the president would love to visit California” and that “our hearts go out” to those affected by the natural disasters.
“Whatever your political affiliation, it’s hard not to see those images and just be heartbroken for our fellow Americans who are going through a very tough time,” Vance said.
“And I do think, frankly, the federal government has to do a better job. President Trump is committed to doing a better job when it comes to disaster relief. That’s true for the hurricane victims and flood victims in North Carolina. It’s true for the fire victims in California. We just — we have to do a better job. We need competent, good governance,” Vance added.
Vance added that Trump still can criticize Newsom “for, I think, some very bad decisions over a very long period of time.”