Topline
President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are both slated to address the wildfires currently ravaging western states on Monday, with Biden delivering remarks on their relation to climate change and Trump visiting California for a briefing.
A boat motors by as the Bidwell Bar Bridge is surrounded by fire in Lake Oroville during the Bear ... [+]
Key Facts
Biden will speak from Delaware, discussing the “threat that extreme weather events pose to Americans everywhere.”
But Biden will also address the fires in a broader context, specifically how they “underscore the urgent need to tackle the climate crisis,” as well as pushing for “good paying, union jobs to build to build more resilient infrastructure.”
Trump will visit McClellan Park in Sacramento County California, which has served as a base for California’s response to the fires, for a briefing with “local and federal fire and emergency officials,” local Fox affiliate FOX 11 reported and the White House confirmed.
Trump has been criticized for remaining largely silent on the fires for weeks as he focused his attention on issues of law and order and civil unrest, and for insisting bad “forest management” is the underlying cause of the fires.
On Friday, Trump thanked the firefighters in a tweet, announcing that he “approved 37 Stafford Act Declarations, including Fire Management Grants,” to “support their brave work.”
Crucial Quote
“The contrast between our vision and the radical left has never been more clear,” Trump said during a speech last week touting his environmental record and claiming to be the true environmentalist of the two candidates. “They talk a big game and they do nothing… they talk and talk, nothing happens. It's all words and no action.”
Chief Critic
"It's just a big and devastating lie," Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said Sunday of Trump’s claim that bad forest management is the cause of the fires. "These are consequences of a warming planet that have huge impacts on rural America with our forests, with our farming, with our fishing."
Big Number
53%. That’s the percent of likely voters in a Quinnipiac poll who said they believe Biden would do a better job of handling a crisis, with 43% saying Trump.
What To Watch For
Biden’s remarks are slated for 1:00pm EST, while Trump’s briefing is scheduled to take place at 1:40pm EST.
