The most politically damaging video to emerge from the massive wildfires burning Los Angeles could have been of Mayor Karen Bass staring blankly into a camera like a deer in headlights as reporters asked her if she had anything to say to the thousands of people whose homes were incinerated.

However, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) did one worse than Bass by telling CNN’s Anderson Cooper, “The local folks are going to have to figure that out,” after Cooper asked why so many fire hydrants in the city had no water to douse the flames threatening homes.