By Hannah Nightingale – The Postmillennial
As wildfires rage on in the Los Angeles Area, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed that “misinformation” surrounding the fires is putting “people’s lives in danger.”
As Jean-Pierre was picking up her things to leave, a reporter asked, “Karine, there’s been a lot of, like, disinformation and misinformation about the response to the California fires. In the case of the hurricanes Helene and Milton, there was some finding that Chinese and other foreign countries were amplifying messages. Do you have any evidence of that?”
Jean-Pierre said she didn’t “have any evidence to share” on that, but added, “what I will say about misinformation and disinformation, it is incredibly dangerous as we all know, as we’re trying to provide resources as we’re trying to—folks on the ground—local officials are trying to make sure that they’re keeping people safe who are dealing with this wildfires, it gets in the way of that. It puts people’s lives in danger.”
She said that “we’re gonna continue to call that out” and it’s “something that needs to stop.”
This comes after California Governor Gavin Newsom launched a website on Sunday “to ensure the public has access to fact-based data around the Southern CA wildfires,” stating that there has been “A lot of misinformation out there.”
In his post announcing the website, Newsom denied reports that the state had cut the firefighting budget, saying instead that it has “nearly doubled the size of our firefighting army and built the world’s largest aerial firefighting fleet.” Newsom also argued that the state, under his leadership, has increased forest management “ten-fold”
At least 24 people have been killed in the multiple wildfires burning in the Los Angeles area and an additional 16 people have been reported missing. At least 12,000 structures have been damaged and destroyed. The Palisades fire has burned nearly 24,000 acres and is 14 percent contained, while the Eaton fire has burned over 14,000 acres and is 33 percent contained.