Aurora Culpo rips Democratic leaders for lack of wildfire preparedness, calls on Newsom, Bass to resign
As firefighters continue to battle raging wildfires tearing into five California counties, celebrities and residents of the Golden State are sharply criticizing government officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, for their lack of preparedness.
Local law enforcement has reported that at least 10 individuals have been killed, and more than 10,000 homes and buildings have been destroyed by fire since Tuesday.
"If this was a business, every single person in office would be fired," Aurora Culpo, host of the podcast "Barely Filtered," told Fox News Digital. "The fact that no one wants to take responsibility and own up to egregious negligence just further proves the lack of true leadership we have in our state."
Sarah Michelle Gellar, Patricia Heaton and Jillian Michaels are among other vocal celebrities providing government officials with scathing reviews.
Culpo, originally from Rhode Island, is a Manhattan Beach resident who fled the area with her children on Thursday.
"This disaster did not come out of left field," Culpo said. "We were well aware of the possibility for fire, and we had the preparedness of a third world country in a place that pays some of the highest taxes in the world. Those in power should be forced to take responsibility and resign."
She added that expectations of government officials should be "extremely high," and political accountability should be enforced with rigor.
"Their lack of competence cost lives, communities and billions of dollars," Culpo said of both Gov. Newsom and Bass.
"The captain goes down with the ship," she said. "Resign."
"I don't care if Newsom is Republican or Democrat, at all, in this case," she said. "Somehow, he's deflecting blame because he's calling it a local issue."
"What I put on my Instagram was that everybody who voted Newsom into office for a second term has blood on their hands, and I stand by what I said," Culpo said. "This is a blue state. If we can't point blame at the Democratic Party, then who can we point blame to? If we can't hold anybody accountable, then how do we think changes are supposed to be made?"
The mother of two added that she concurs with President-elect Donald Trump’s statement posted to Truth Social attributing the spread of wildfires to the "gross incompetence" by Bass and Newsom.
"I agree with him 100 percent," she said.
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Culpo said that she is "all for environmentalism, conservation, LGBTQ rights and diversity," but that safety, above all else, should remain a priority in the hierarchy of needs.
"We are not sophisticated enough of a society yet to be worrying about things like how diverse our firefighters are," Culpo said.
"We are funding sex changes for prison inmates, but we can't fill the reservoirs, because we want to save the smelt fish," she said.
Since 2017, California has allegedly paid $4 million in taxpayer funds for trans inmates' surgeries, including breast augmentation and facial feminization, according to the California Family Counsel.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a top water supply system in California, is largely protected due to its depleting smelt and Chinook salmon population.
"Regardless of your opinion on sex changes for inmates or smelt fish, the point is that our priorities are completely out of whack," Culpo said.
Despite tireless efforts by firefighters to put out the flames, some fires remain uncontrolled, and Culpo is taking her children to San Francisco, where her sister, model and former Miss Universe Olivia Culpo, and her new husband, NFL running back Christian McCaffrey, are staying.
"I'm worried about my kids because of the air quality," Culpo said. "These are very serious pollutants in the air that can cause long-term problems."