SACRAMENTO — Republicans in California are angry about the tweet posted by President Trump that threatened to withdraw federal disaster assistance and blamed last years's wildfires on poor forest management.
GOP state Sen. Jim Nielsen, who represents the town of Paradise and other parts of fire-ravaged Butte County, told KCBS Radio that he was "righteously unhappy" about Trump's comments.
"That's no way to do business with the affected populations," he said. "They're just devastated, and I was right in Paradise yesterday when this all came down. That was unwise. Both the governor and particularly the president need to get back together and work to help solve this problem."
Behind the scenes, the seven members of California's GOP Congressional delegation are working to get the president to retract the threat.
On Wednesday, Nielsen and his Butte County counterpart in the Assembly, James Gallagher, issued a joint statement reading in part that "This Twitter war ... is not helpful. It will not solve the problem," and saying the threat to withhold FEMA funds is "wholly unacceptable."
A statement from Republican Congressman Doug LaMalfa of Butte County denounced the threat to withdraw funding.
"These are American citizens who require our help," said LaMalfa, who added that he expects President Trump to keep his promise to assist the people of California.
California Democrats were also quick condemn the Trump's tweet.
Congressman Ken Calvert, who represents part of the Inland Empire in Southern California, posted on Twitter a letter he wrote to Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, advising her and her Democratic colleagues to take a page from President Lincoln's book - and temper their anger.