Washington Democrat Rep. Pramila Jayapal faced backlash after posting a flippant comment about a burning McDonald's amidst the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles County. Critics accused her of callousness and using the tragedy for political gain, highlighting the real human cost of the disaster while she made light of it.
In the main photo, a man walks in front of the burning Altadena Community Church in Pasadena, California, on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. The inset photo shows Washington Democratic U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal in February 2024. (California photo: Associated Press; Jayapal photo: Getty Images; MyNorthwest photo compilation) On X, Jayapal posted a haunting video of a McDonald’s engulfed in flames in Los Angeles County, as winds blow embers to nearby businesses and homes.
She wrote, “Corporations got us into this mess, but even they can’t escape the devastating reality of climate change.” Turning a photo of a burning McDonald’s into a snarky indictment of corporations is tasteless at best and outright cruel at worst. While she’s joking about a business burning to the ground, there are employees and a small business owner wondering how they’ll recover. Some may be wondering what to do after a fire claimed their job Think about it — while Rep. Pramila Jayapal is busy crafting a pithy X post to rack up likes, real people are losing their jobs, homes and livelihoods. Families who relied on that McDonald’s for a paycheck now face an uncertain future. But hey, at least she got to make her climate change joke, right? So much for pretending to care about the working class. She’s too busy using their misery for political points. This X post is a masterclass in leftist delusion meant to rally the most ignorant anti-capitalists and eco-extremists amongst us — combining a gross oversimplification of climate change with a smug swipe at corporations. California wildfires aren’t the fault of “corporations.” They’re the predictable consequence of decades of failed progressive policies that refuse to clear dead, dry brush while cutting millions from fire departments’ budgets. Eco-extremists like Jayapal fight against responsible forest management practices, like clearing dead trees and brush, because apparently, letting kindling pile up is the ultimate act of virtue signaling. And who can forget the water management disasters that have left dry vegetation to ignite like a matchstick?While Pramila Jayapal may have thought she her cruel joke would land, it resulted in thousands of people calling out her callousness. “So distasteful and inappropriate as always, but you are used to stooping low. There are thousands of people fleeing their homes because of mismanagement by California officials. The devastating reality is that Newsom, Bass and democrats failed the people of LA,” influencer Oli London wrote in response. “That’s somebody’s small business and you’re celebrating their destruction to cover for your own party’s failures,” Washington, D.C.-based radio host Vince Coglianese responded. Joel Petlin, a school superintendent, reacted: “Remember when they were outraged that anyone could politicize a disaster while lives are being lost and thousands of homes are being destroyed by wildfires? I guess that this member of Congress didn’t get the memo.” IT SHOWS WHAT A TOTAL IDIOT THIS CONGRESSWOMEN IS AND IT REMINDS AMERICANS – NEVER AGAIN GIVE POWER TO THESE LOSERS It’s easy to mock destruction — ruined lives, destroyed businesses — when you’re a legitimately bad person. And Pramila Jayapal is just that. Jayapal focuses on a burning McDonald’s as some kind of poetic justice for climate change. This kind of smug rhetoric doesn’t just miss the mark; it actively harms the debate by turning a serious issue into a performative blame game. If she wanted to solve climate issues, she would start with common sense solutions and hold accountable the actual policymakers enabling these disasters, not a small business owner and their employees. But Jayapal isn’t concerned with helping address problems. It’s why you won’t find any meaningful legislative victories from her. She’s an actress playing the role of a congresswoman. This kind of rhetoric isn’t just callous; it’s wildly detached from reality. She’s making light of a disaster that impacts countless lives, reducing it to a cheap punchline about corporate greed. If that’s not mocking victims, I don’t know what is. It’s the kind of performative commentary that feels edgy on Progressive X, but is just flat out cruel and ghoulish
Pramila Jayapal Wildfires LA Fires Climate Change Corporate Greed Political Commentary Backlash Mcdonald's California Politics
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