Sponsored

Mel Gibson Blasts Gov. Gavin Newsom In Support Of Recall Effort

By No Comments
Mel Gibson
Photo Credit: Alan Light, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14707835

Conservative Hollywood star Mel Gibson took aim at California Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday, slamming the Democrat for what he deemed “gross mismanagement” of the state after catastrophic wildfire season.

Speaking during a press event in Los Angeles, the 69-year-old actor directly criticized both Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, accusing them of failing residents who had their homes burnt to a crisp.

“Governor Newsom and Karen Bass let us all down,” Gibson remarked, underscoring the high taxes Californians pay.

“Now, for that kind of money, we deserve much more and much better, and there is absolutely no adequate excuse the governor or mayor can make for this gross mismanagement and failure to preemptively deal with what they knew was coming,” he started off.

He posed a sharp question to the crowd regarding the motives behind such failures, asking, “Was it incompetence? Was it indifference, complacency, carelessness? Was it negligence? Absolutely.”

Turning up the heat, Gibson added, “There are many who say it is criminal negligence.”

The crowd seemed to echo his sentiment when Gibson asked if either leader “give a d**n about you,” responding loudly with a unified “no.”

The “Lethal Weapon” star further lambasted Newsom, accusing his leadership of bringing “rampant crime, acute homelessness, horrendous inflation” to the state.

On a personal note, Gibson highlighted the plight of homeowners who, like himself, lost everything in the fires.

“All of my fellow citizens who have lost their homes, they have no recourse, no insurance payouts because the carriers dropped them,” he explained, referencing decisions by insurance companies to cease coverage in high-risk fire zones.

“Even the carriers realized that California was ill-prepared and had scant resources to deal with the inevitable fires. They knew that,” he continued.

“So are we supposed to believe that our elected officials didn’t know that? Of course they knew that. Of course.”

Gibson took a moment during the conference to praise firefighters for their efforts during the blazes, despite the obstacles they faced.

“The firefighters, I have to say they were practically in tears. You know why? Because they thought they had let us down,” he shared, only to clarify, “I want to say loudly right here: You did not let us down.”

The actor then turned his attention directly to Mayor Bass, criticizing her decision to dismiss Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley.

Bass had argued that Crowley’s oversight left as many as 1,000 firefighters off duty during the critical moment the fires ignited.

Gibson, however, believed the move was nothing more than a political scapegoating effort.

“I mean, one of the most pathetic and despicable things I’ve seen was when Karen Bass, in order to shift the blame and culpability from herself, wiped it on the fire chief and threw her under the bus for speaking the truth about how the department had been defunded and were without resources,” he stated sharply.

The actor went further, noting that Bass had posted social media warnings about fire risks days before leaving town.

“Mayor Bass tweeted about the levels of danger days before she blew out of town, you know. And we drove around in the [Pacific Coast Highway] and into my neighborhood and various other neighborhoods,” he added.

“Devastating. There I saw the houses of my friends and neighbors reduced to toxic piles of smoldering rubble, much like here in Altadena.”

The group Saving California, who hosted the event, announced they had received approval to circulate a petition for a gubernatorial recall targeting Newsom.

According to reports, the group needs to collect around 15 million signatures within 160 days to trigger a vote.

Newsom had previously faced a recall effort in 2021 but managed to retain his position after just 38 percent of voters supported the recall measure in that case.

Newsom’s office responded to this latest recall drive by accusing its backers of exploiting wildfire victims for political purposes.

“Here’s the worst part: Their partisan recall will waste 200 million taxpayer dollars desperately needed for emergency preparedness and response,” the governor’s office said in a statement.

They also asserted that the recall campaign had “[sunk] to a new low” with its actions of “exploiting the victims of the LA fires for political gain.”

To wrap up his pointed remarks, Gibson aimed one last verbal jab at Newsom, stating, “[Newsom] is gonna ‘build back better.’ That’s a catchy little phrase,” before quipping, “I have another ‘B’ word there. It’s called ‘bulls***.’”

Revisiting his firsthand experience with the fires in a recent interview, Gibson recalled the day he discovered his Malibu home had been lost, while he was recording an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast in Austin, Texas.

“I was doing the Rogan podcast. … And [I was] kind of ill at ease while we were talking, because I knew my neighborhood was on fire, so I thought, I wonder if my place is still there. But when I got home, sure enough, it wasn’t there,” Gibson recounted.

Trying to find a silver lining, he joked, “I went home and I said to myself, well, at least I haven’t got any of those pesky plumbing problems anymore.”

Despite the attempts at humor, Gibson expressed how deeply the loss had affected him. The property he had called home for over a decade was gone, leaving him to cope with the “devastating” aftermath.

Leave A Reply