GOP House Leader McCarthy silent as Trump threatens his home state

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy is ignoring Trump’s direct threat to the safety of his home state of California. Instead, the top Republican is bolstering Trump’s shutdown of the government for a nonsensical wall.

“Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would never happen,” Trump complained on Twitter Wednesday. “Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money.”

McCarthy represents California’s 23rd Congressional District, home to over 707,000 Californians — but he’s not standing up for them and Trump’s threat to cut off their emergency funding. Instead, McCarthy is tweeting video of the Republican leader supporting Trump’s shutdown of the federal government.

McCarthy also didn’t say anything about Trump’s threat against McCarthy’s own constituents on his official web page or on his Facebook page.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, however, who represents California’s 12th District, did speak up for her home state. On Twitter Pelosi wrote, “@realDonaldTrump’s threat insults the memory of scores of Americans who perished in wildfires last year & thousands more who lost their homes.”

She also took note of McCarthy’s silence and subservience to Trump, saying McCarthy “must join me to condemn & call on POTUS to reassure millions in CA that our govt will be there for them in their time of need.”

Since taking office, Trump has often attacked California, where Hillary Clinton defeated him in 2016 by over 4.2 million votes.

When wildfires killed over 30 people in the state, Trump lied about the cause of the fire and blamed the victims. He threatened to withhold federal aid to help fellow Americans and refused to acknowledge the victims or praise firefighters there.

Officials within his administration followed suit and also attacked victims of the fire.

After his withering attacks on the state, voters there rose up and purged Republicans at both the federal and local level. The Republican presence in California is at one of its lowest points in history, and that can be traced directly to Trump and his extreme unpopularity there.

Faced with standing up for the state that sent him to Congress or ingratiating himself to Trump, McCarthy has clearly chosen the same path as his predecessor, failed Speaker Paul Ryan, who was always eager to turn a blind eye to Trump’s vicious attacks on Americans.

Now Trump is attacking the very people McCarthy supposedly represents. But instead of standing up for them, McCarthy is standing in favor of Trump’s petty vendetta against the people of California.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.