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Somewhere along the way, Donald Trump got the idea that he held leverage over one of the largest economies in the world. No, this is not a story about tariffs and international relations.
The large economy that Trump is trying to extort is California, as the President said that he wants the state to change its voting laws in exchange for disaster relief as the state continues to battle wildfires.
Sen. Adam Schiff had a very direct message for Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson after Johnson suggested putting conditions on wildfire disaster relief:
That is just shameful. Americans are hurting right now. When his state was hit by Katrina I fought to get aid for Katrina. I went with a congressional delegation a year later to see how the recovery was going and to raise issues about how slow it was and, and how we needed to bring more urgency to it.
I never even thought for a moment, okay, this is a red state, maybe we shouldn’t provide aid, or maybe we should tie it to some unrelated policy objective. I think it is shameful, what he is saying, and let me say this, as a Californian, we have given more to the recovery of other states than any other state in the Union.
You do not want to go down this road. None of us want to go down this road. And look, I’m glad the President went to California. I urged him to go to California. He did. I felt he could not help but be moved by seeing the scope of the devastation. I think he was moved, but let’s not go down the road of trying to tie unrelated policy matters when people are hurting.
Video of Schiff:
