Fallacious: Gov. Newsom’s ‘Fastest Recovery in Debris Removal in Modern History’ after LA Fires

If government actually moved “at the speed of need” as Gov. Gavin Newsom claims, Pacific Palisades, Altadena and Malibu would have been thriving construction zones for the past 4-5 months. Instead, all three locals still have tons of fire debris piles on homesites, fire ravaged buildings untouched, and burned-out emptiness where houses once made up neighborhoods. 

But to hear California Governor Gavin Newsom tell it in his fairytale press conference Monday, he’s Superman and the greatest world leader of time all rolled into one.

Monday, at Newsom’s press conference, the speakers, all Democrat politicians, demonstrated their high-level incompetence by barely mentioning the lack of progress, or the long-suffering residents who are still going through recovery, and used the press conference as a political platform. Politicians who spoke focused on each other, dishing out syrupy compliments and barked out meaningless political platitudes, I reported.

This was followed up by fallacious posts on X by Gov. Newsom’s fawning PR staff, straight out of George Orwell’s 1984.

“In the 6 months since the horrific LA firestorms, California showed what’s possible when government moves at the speed of need: clearing debris from over 10,000 parcels faster than any major wildfire in U.S. history. In fact, 96% of total sites of had remaining debris removed. Plus, all water systems have been restored, and all school campuses affected by the fires have been cleared. But there’s more work to do. That’s why @CAGovernor Gavin Newsom signed an Executive Order today — at the request of local officials — to continue to streamline rebuilding efforts,” Newsom’s press office hallucinated on X.

In his dogmatic press conference Monday, the governor grossly distorted what has actually taken place in Los Angeles post-fires, and his own importance involving the work being done: “Recovery defines us – it’s not what happened but how we respond to what happens to us,” Gov. Newsom said. It was as if the governor was talking in cursive. Or something.

Newsom bragged about the “historical” pace of the debris removal: “this has been the fastest recovery in debris removal in modern history,” Gov. Newsom said. Was he conflating perhaps how London was bombed in World War II by the Luftwaffe over a period of 267 days, was cleared and rebuilt after the war. That historical? Or by “fastest recovery in debris removal in modern history” the governor means the Loma Prieta earthquake (1989) or Northridge earthquake (1994) cleanups and rebuilding? That modern history?

Newsom’s hyperbole aside, as gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton said in his press conference Monday about the recovery process, where he was live in Pacific Palisades with piles of debris behind him, “the fires were caused by Gov. Newsom’s and Democrat’s climate policies and their total incompetence.”

“Six months, and this is still here,” Hilton said pointing to the massive pile of debris behind him. “Six months… and Newsom is bragging about ‘the fastest response in modern history’?”

“He said his administration’s response to this disaster was ‘at an historic pace.'”

“‘A history pace?’ He talked six months ago about a ‘Marshall Plan’ to recover from these wildfires,” Hilton said.

So, given Newsom’s “Marshall Plan” promise, apparently Gov. Newsom was comparing his response to the Los Angeles fires to Europe’s recovery after WWII. The Marshall Plan, enacted by the U.S. in 1948 to provide economic aid to Western Europe after World War II, aimed at rebuilding war-torn European economies and preventing the spread of communism.

Many Californians befittingly believe that parts of LA have already been taken over by communists, however I don’t think Newsom’s “recovery” of fire ravaged Los Angeles and WWII Europe’s historical “recovery” are in the same league – Marshall Plan or not.

Steve Hilton and I had an interesting discussion after his and Gov. Newsom’s press conferences, because the pressers were as different as Democracy and Marxist-Leninism.

Hilton described the governor’s press conference as shameless, bragging about the cleanup, when it was evident that wherever you looked in Pacific Palisades, there were piles of burned homes and burned business debris.

Don’t believe your lying eyes. It was as if Governor Newsom was channeling George Orwell’s Ministry of Truth, for he too engages in ceaseless propaganda, and nullifies historical fact, preferring his own set of “facts.”

The more Steve Hilton and I spoke, it was apparent we are on to Gov. Newsom.

We normal, responsible people in the private sector are accountable, and many are even results-oriented. Hilton has a background in business, as do I. We can’t just hold roundtable meetings, and share big ideas, and talk talk talk – we have to put forth effort that produces results.

And that approach is foreign to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, nearly all elected Democrats, leftists, Marxists and Communists. As Hilton said, “for politicians and bureaucrats, process is the same as action.”

“Newsom said, ‘we’re going to have a Marshall Plan,’ and that was the end of it.”

Governor Newsom issues executive orders, and thinks that is the same as action. He signs a bill, and thinks that is the same as action.

Hilton said his first real job was as a junior project manager with a construction company in his gap year after high school. He went from construction site to construction site, talking with lead contractors, coordinating projects, updating time lines, checking subcontractors, and the like. “It was the best training I ever had,” he said.

“Project management is absent from politicians,” Hilton said. “They never talk about the outcomes.”

“They spent money, passed a bill (these are inputs), but never followed up for the outcomes,” he added. “Nothing works. It’s a basic lack of understanding to make anything happen.”

It also is how politicians wiggle out of accountability. When something doesn’t happen the way it was supposed to, the politician says “well, I signed that bill,” or “I appropriated the funding,” rather than actually doing something consequential for actual results.

This is why we receive not much more from Democrats than vague political platitudes and rhetoric. Their mouths are moving, and words are forming, but if you listen intently, it’s as if Kamala Harris is writing everyone’s speeches:

• “In our nation, I think the people are ready to turn the page.”
• she promised “we’re not going back.”
• “We need a new way forward.”
• “One of my highest priorities is to do what we can to support and strengthen the middle class.”

That’s pretty much what we get from Gov. Gavin Newsom – together with a heaping side of rhetoric.

“How can they have total disenfranchisement from reality?” Hilton commented. “All they care about is ‘how do I look?’ But they can’t even get that right. Look around – Palisades is still not cleaned up. They don’t even look good.”

Hilton shared with me another example of conflating talk and action as results. LA Mayor Karen Bass back in January announced that she signed an executive order to allow Angelenos to quickly rebuild after the devastating fires. Hilton said, “She posted to X ‘I have just signed an executive order streamlining the rebuilding Los Angeles.’ But in the actual video of Bass announcing this, she said ‘I am tasking agency heads with taking a path forward…'”

Here is her Executive Order filled with obtuse language:

• creating a “Task Force to develop a comprehensive and streamlined program for debris removal;” and
• “The Mayor’s Office shall designate a Debris Manager charged with identifying City roles and responsibilities;”
• “The five Bureaus of the Board of Public Works shall immediately establish a Watershed Hazards Task Force to conduct post-fire debris-flow hazard assessments…”

What causes this disconnect between reality and delusions? Is it clinical narcissism, a proclivity for deception and manipulation, a gargantuan ego, gross incompetence? Why are these people drawn to machine politics?

Where are the healthy reactions that normal people have: empathy, guilt, and moral reasoning?

Evidence of Gov. Newsom’s delusions: I posted photos I took on February 7, 2025 when I was in Pacific Palisades, and a friend’s photos from Monday. These two photos are nearly identical, taken 5 months apart.

As I said Monday, “This staged event ended up being a love-fest for Governor Gavin Newsom and the First Partner, a launching for Newsom to go to South Carolina to begin his presidential campaign. The fire recovery was clearly secondary.” As California Rep. Kevin Kiley confirmed, and added today, “Gavin Newsom is currently in South Carolina, for what is widely regarded as a “soft launch” of his delusional presidential campaign. Or, I should say, his latest delusional campaign; he of course strenuously tried – and spectacularly failed – to be the Biden Replacement last year.”