The only way to stop California wildfires? Elect Joe Biden, claims former competitor Tom Steyer

Democrat activist and former presidential hopeful Tom Steyer says the wildfires in California, Oregon, and Washington are due to climate change, and the “only solution” to them is Joe Biden.

The number-one thing people can do to stop the wildfires raging, according to Steyer, is to “elect a different president who is going to recognize the problem, deal with it forcefully at home, deal with it forcefully overseas.” And the “only solution” to the fires, Steyer told CNN’s ‘New Day,’ is “honest to God, Joe Biden.” 

Steyer, a billionaire Democrat donor and activist, ran briefly for the Democrat Party’s presidential nomination on a platform based mainly around battling climate change and ending the US’ dependency on fossil fuels. He ended his presidential campaign in February and later endorsed Biden. 

Steyer has dubbed the fires a “climate issue” and previously said they are proof of a “climate emergency.”“I think we all know this is a global issue of climate [change],” Steyer told CNN. 

Biden has also pitched himself as the answer to the wildfires. In a Monday campaign speech, he blasted President Trump as a "climate arsonist" and predicted more of America would be "ablaze" if the president gets four more years in office.

"If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze?" the former vice president said. 

Some of the current wildfires, however, have been partly started by people, rather than being completely natural occurrences. A ‘gender reveal’ party, at which parents come up with elaborate ways to reveal the gender of their forthcoming child, is behind one fire in Southern California. An explosion of colored smoke was set off on September 5 by an expecting couple, which set off a major fire. While this was not the cause of all the massive fires in the state, over 10,000 acres have been torched in the El Dorado area alone, and the flames are still being contained by first responders. 

In Oregon, where the governor has said multiple towns have been “substantially destroyed” from blazes, a man was arrested over the weekend by Portland Police for starting a brush fire with a Molotov cocktail. After being released on bail, he was taken into custody again on Monday for starting six more small fires. He is currently undergoing a mental health evaluation.

Multiple other arrests in Oregon, Washington, and California in connection with starting fires have fueled rumors on social media that many of the fires could have been purposely started by politically motivated arsonists. However, the FBI has already dismissed such claims as “conspiracy theories.”

Facebook has taken to removing posts that allege the fires were started by “certain groups” whose motivations were political.

If you like this story, share it with a friend!