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Gov. Gavin Newsom, center, is pictured at a wildfire briefing with President Joe Biden and Sen. Alex Padilla. The governor has made countering misinformation about the Los Angeles fires a top priority. | Stephanie Scarbrough/AP | ||||
THE BUZZ: CLAPPING BACK — Gov. Gavin Newsom is creating a new disaster playbook to confront President-elect Donald Trump, Elon Musk and adversaries in the information battle that erupted after the wildfires began roaring across Los Angeles. As he’s managed the state’s response to the fires from the ground — securing aid from President Joe Biden and appealing to Trump for help — Newsom has been calling out his critics for spreading mis- and disinformation — in interviews with new and traditional media, on social media, and on a fact-checking website his team unveiled Saturday. In perhaps the highest-profile example, Newsom shared a clip of Musk meeting with a member of the Los Angeles fire command team. Musk, who had written on his X platform that the immense loss of homes in LA was due to “nonsensical overregulation” and “bad governance at the state and local level that resulted in a shortage of water,” was told by the LAFD official in the video that the system was overwhelmed by the amount of water flowing through it. Newsom said the video was proof Musk was “exposed by firefighters for his own lies.” For Newsom, and increasingly for other Democrats in the grip of a catastrophe, fighting disasters has become a two-front conflict. During North Carolina's recent recovery from Hurricane Helene, then-Gov. Roy Cooper admonished those spreading misinformation, saying “whatever their aim, the people you are really hurting are those in western North Carolina who need help.” There also was a crush of bogus claims after the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. But never has a disaster been more politicized than the LA wildfires. And it’s playing out in a new environment — with California’s Democratic leaders preparing to act as a bulwark against Trump, an emboldened Musk on X, a diminished news media and social media companies retreating from fact-checking on their platforms. “There’s misinformation and disinformation and then there’s this — depravity on some other level. What they are doing is making it harder for the state to manage the disaster and putting peoples’ lives at risk,” said Simon Rosenberg, a longtime Democratic strategist who has written extensively about messaging. Houman David Hemmati, a Santa Monica physician who is helping organize another recall attempt of Newsom, was called out by the governor this week for contending Newsom and Democrats were tying state fire aid to money to fight Trump in court. While a Democratic state senator said early this week that the two proposals would be combined, they will appear in separate bills. Hemmati told Playbook that Newsom was “splitting hairs” and said the rapid fact-checking was proof of his misplaced priorities. “He’s ignoring the fact that he’s still pursuing the whole Trump thing in the midst of a fire. It’s a little tone deaf,” Hemmati said. PolitiFact examined a Fox News fire budget story that Newsom called a “ridiculous lie” and determined that the governor was right that the budget increased, but it’s not a lie that money (more than $100 million) was cut. Republicans nationally alluded to some of the misleading claims to further their arguments that California is a failed state, portraying Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass as incompetent. Some of those assertions — like the water policy disagreement between Trump and Newsom hindering LA’s supply during the fire — have cropped up in congressional talks around conditioning federal aid. Newsom’s critics also seized on his activity to argue he’s more worried about perception than fire operations. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who supports conditioning the aid, implored the ambitious Democrat to “get to work helping Californians.” “You’re the leader of a state in crisis, and you should finally start acting like it,” he wrote on X, responding to the governor’s remarks to the YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen. Newsom closely monitors conservative media, where he’s frequently vilified. He has heard personally from people asking whether a certain rumor is true. The fact-checking speaks to his sensitivity, but also to his political instincts that Democrats will continue to be completely snowed by Trump and other opponents if they don’t adapt to the new realities. A Newsom administration official said nearly half of the press inquiries to the governor’s office of late were based on an obviously false narrative or seeking information to fact-check a misleading or outright spurious statement on social media. “We recognized right away that the flood of disinformation here was damaging our efforts to communicate with the public. It just added this layer of extreme anxiety for people and took resources away from managing this disaster,” said Bob Salladay, a Newsom adviser. “This is California being totally inundated with moronic speculation and political garbage — and we are hitting back hard because when people in power believe this trash, it damages the state.” Salladay estimated his team has quieted dozens of false or misleading narratives since Tuesday evening. Newsom’s gambit also has put him in something closer to an offensive position, or one where he’s fighting, which is where he’s most comfortable. “In the past, people didn't cross these lines in the middle of a disaster,” Rosenberg said. “But we are now in a total war.” Stay tuned for an inside look at how Newsom’s staff built their misinfo response machine in this afternoon’s California Climate. GOOD MORNING. Happy Friday. Thanks for waking up with Playbook. You can text us at 916-562-0685 — save it as “CA Playbook” in your contacts. Or drop us a line at dgardiner@politico.com and bjones@politico.com, or on X — @DustinGardiner and @jonesblakej. WHERE’S GAVIN? In Los Angeles, working with emergency officials responding to the fires. | ||||
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Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass tour the downtown business district of Pacific Palisades during the fires. | Eric Thayer/Getty Images | ||||
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: HAVING HER BACK — Critics continue piling on Bass over her handling of the wildfires, especially the fact that she was traveling abroad when the flames broke out. But Newsom is voicing his unequivocal support. In a new interview with MSNBC host Jen Psaki, which the network shared early with Playbook, the governor said “there's no daylight between” him and Bass as the state continues to battle devastating fires. “I have total support,” Newsom said of Bass. “We're working on this Marshall Plan together to rebuild and regionalize our approach, dealing with price gouging issues, dealing with all these situational issues. So there's no issues whatsoever.” Newsom spoke with Psaki in LA, in front of a building burned to ashes. The full interview will air at 9 a.m. PST Sunday on “Inside with Jen Psaki.” But the political blowback facing Bass isn’t letting up anytime soon. More on that next… | ||||
Then-presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stands on stage with Nicole Shanahan, his running mate, at a campaign event last year. | Eric Risberg/AP | ||||
DO YOU RECALL? — Nicole Shanahan, the Silicon Valley billionaire and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. booster, is “actively involved” in an attempt to recall Bass and is prepared to help fund it, a person familiar with the discussions tells Playbook. She is working behind the scenes to oust Bass as well as Newsom, but views the first-term mayor as an easier target amid criticism of her response to the fires. Shanahan is soliciting help from “people in power” throughout the state who are sympathetic to the cause, said the person, who was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. Shanahan, a Democrat-turned-independent with a libertarian streak, was Kennedy’s running mate when he ran for president and donated the maximum to his campaign. Her financial support could go a long way toward getting a recall on the ballot, creating another political headache for the mayor just as she’s under pressure from Republicans and even some Democrats over her leadership during the disaster. “She’s going to put her money where her mouth is, but no single billionaire is going to be able to fund the whole effort and make it successful,” the person said, adding that Shanahan is prepared to assemble other donors for a recall campaign. Petitions have cropped up online demanding Bass’ resignation, and one was circulated by the Los Angeles Times’ billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, who has praised Kennedy repeatedly online. But signatures on the online forms haven’t been verified and wouldn’t count toward an official petition to place a recall on the ballot. Shanahan is also considering running for office — possibly for governor in a potential Newsom recall or the 2026 race, or even for a different statewide office, the person said. | ||||
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San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie. | Jeff Chiu/AP Photo | ||||
NO COMMENT? — Speaking of the fires, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie’s team won’t answer questions about whether his property in Malibu was damaged. Lurie took office a week ago. His team has since acknowledged the question, but dodged multiple inquiries about the status of his $15.5 million vacation pad. | ||||
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An aerial view shows devastation left by the Palisades Fire. | Jae C. Hong/AP | ||||
DON’T BLINK OR YOU’LL MISS IT — Underneath the political barbs Republicans and Democrats are throwing at each other over the Los Angeles fires lies some of the strongest momentum yet for climate adaptation policies. Read more about the ideas getting bipartisan support in last night's California Climate. | ||||
| A message from Alibaba: | ||||
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Devastation from the Palisades Fire is seen at sunset. | Ethan Swope/AP | ||||
NO STRINGS ATTACHED — GOP Sen. Katie Britt broke from her Alabama counterpart Tommy Tuberville when she said she supports “standing firmly with the people of California” in a conversation with our colleague Jonathan Martin. Britt opened up about how the loss of her home in a 2011 tornado made her sympathetic to the cause of Californians. “That being said, obviously you're not just going to write a blank check. We have to be judicious with our dollars.” HEAR HER ROAR — Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry says it is a “great time to work on legislation that reflects women’s experience” as a record number of 58 women are poised to serve in the state’s 120 legislative seats. As she also assumes the position of chair of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus, she is placing child care at the top of her legislative priority list. She tells Capitol Weekly, “We leave women behind when they have to stay home.” | ||||
Former state Sen. Josh Newman. | Rich Pedroncelli/AP | ||||
NOT DONE YET — Former State Sen. Josh Newman says he has “a lot left to offer in public service” as he prepares to teach a class on California’s future at UC Irvine School of Social Ecology. Newman lost his reelection bid for his 37th District seat in November and is planning on running for the open 34th District seat in 2026, Lindsey Holden reported first for POLITICO Pro. At Irvine, he joins former Rep. Katie Porter, who returns to teach at UCI School of Law after losing in the U.S. Senate primary in 2024. | ||||
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— Imperial Beach City Council approved a controversial amended ordinance that allows new renter protections for “no-fault” lease terminations. The new law would also require landlords to pay for relocation expenses for those who are evicted in situations like substantial remodels. The law still requires a second vote, which is scheduled for February. (San Diego Union-Tribune) — Ambar Tovar, director of legal services at the United Farm Workers Foundation, says her team is in contact with eight farmworkers who were arrested in a surprise raid by U.S. Border Patrol in Kern County. None had any criminal history. (San Francisco Chronicle) — A gridlocked Madera City Council avoided calling for a $40,000 special election for a vacant seat by having the two nominees decide for themselves who would bow out. (The Fresno Bee) | ||||
| A message from Alibaba: Alibaba helps California businesses succeed on a global scale. Dan Hodgdon, founder and chairman of California-based Vegamour says “the access to the [international] market that Alibaba provides creates substantial employment opportunities within our U.S. company…It has a ripple effect: the greater the demand, the more jobs we can create to meet that demand.” It is estimated that the sales on Alibaba by California businesses contributed millions to the state’s GDP and supported thousands of local jobs in just one year. | ||||
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PEOPLE MOVES — Drew Wallace is now Democratic staff director for the Senate Rules Committee under ranking member Alex Padilla. He previously was deputy assistant to the president and deputy director for the Senate in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. — Luis Amezcua has departed Better World Group to serve as state Sen. Jesse Arreguin's legislative director. — Raymond Contreras has joined Lighthouse Public Affairs as a director in the Sacramento office. He was previously legislative director for Assemblymember Mike Gipson. — David Perlson has joined the firm Hogan Lovells as a partner in the Global Regulatory & Intellectual Property Practice Group in the San Francisco office. Perlson was previously with the firm Quinn Emanuel. BIRTHDAYS — Lindsay Monaghan … Robert F. Kennedy Jr. … Mary Clare Rigali … Chris Gudmundson … Jackie Koenig … Jocelyn Hopps in Assemblymember Marc Berman’s office … BELATED BDAY WISHES — (was Wednesday): NYT’s Sheera Frenkel … Teddy Bulakul WANT A SHOUT-OUT FEATURED? — Send us a birthday, career move or another special occasion to include in POLITICO’s California Playbook. You can now submit a shout-out using this Google form. CALIFORNIA POLICY IS ALWAYS CHANGING: Know your next move. From Sacramento to Silicon Valley, POLITICO California Pro provides policy professionals with the in-depth reporting and tools they need to get ahead of policy trends and political developments shaping the Golden State. To learn more about the exclusive insight and analysis this subscriber-only service offers, click here. Want to make an impact? POLITICO California has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Golden State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness amongst this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Rebecca Haase to find out how: rhaase@politico.com. | ||||
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