Joe Biden approves disaster declaration for California as he prepares to survey wildfire damage
President Joe Biden will be in California on Monday to survey the damage from recent wildfires and campaign for a fellow Democrat facing a recall election.
This comes after the president approved a disaster declaration to the state and ordered federal assistance to help the recovery efforts Sunday night.
The White House said that Biden will be in the state capital of Sacramento to take a look at the damage.
Biden will also visit Idaho and Colorado in what is his first presidential travel west of Oklahoma and his first visit to the Golden State, according to the LA Times.
President Joe Biden (pictured at Sunday Mass in Wilmington) will be in California on Monday to survey the damage from recent wildfires and campaign for a fellow Democrat facing a recall election
President Joe Biden will be in California on Monday to survey the damage from recent wildfires and campaign for a fellow Democrat facing a recall election
The president had committed to campaign for embattled Gov. Gavin Newsom, who faces a recall election Tuesday, weeks ago.
However, the event with Newsome will now fit in between official business to survey yet another series of wildfires to devastate the nation's largest state.
More than 6,800 wildfires large and small have blackened an estimated 1.7 million acres (689,000 hectares) within California alone this season, stretching available firefighting forces and equipment dangerously thin.
The blazes have been stoked by extremely hot, dry conditions that experts say are symptomatic of climate change during a summer fire season shaping up as one of the most destructive on record
The blazes have been stoked by extremely hot, dry conditions that experts say are symptomatic of climate change during a summer fire season shaping up as one of the most destructive on record.
Biden said last week that wildfires, hurricanes and floods were hitting every part of the United States, with more than 100 million Americans affected this summer alone, as he pressed for investments to boost infrastructure and fight global warming.
Biden made fighting climate change a key plank of his 2020 presidential campaign and a top priority of his administration, but some of his goals rely on getting the U.S. Congress to pass multitrillion-dollar legislation on infrastructure and other priorities.
This month, Biden declared an emergency in California and ordered federal assistance to boost responders' efforts to battle the Caldor fire
This month, Biden declared an emergency in California and ordered federal assistance to boost responders' efforts to battle the Caldor fire.
"Additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the State and warranted by the results of further damage assessments", the White House said on Sunday.
The Caldor fire, burning since mid-August, is 65% contained. It has led to 5 injuries and damaged 81 residential, commercial and other structures while destroying over a thousand such structures, according to authorities.
Southwesterly winds are forecast through most of the coming week which could fan the growth of fires in the West Zone, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said late on Sunday.
Biden made fighting climate change a key plank of his 2020 presidential campaign and a top priority of his administration, but some of his goals rely on getting the U.S. Congress to pass multitrillion-dollar legislation on infrastructure and other priorities
Biden will wrap up the day in Long Beach for an election-eve event with California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who faces a recall vote the next day.
His eleventh-hour pitch Monday in California comes the day before voters head to the polls to decide whether to recall Newsom and then replace him with Republican and talk-show host Larry Elder, who’s seen as the leading GOP alternative to Newsom, or any of the dozens of other candidates on the ballot.
According to CNN, it would take an 'historic polling miss' for Newsom to lose the recall.
Biden will wrap up the day in Long Beach for an election-eve event with California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who faces a recall vote the next day
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