GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy responded to revelations this week detailing that the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources (DNLR) delayed its response to a major Maui water company’s request to divert water amid the wildfires.
There’s a dark but hard TRUTH to the Maui catastrophe that has led to over 110 tragic deaths. As wildfires raged, desperate residents petitioned state officials to send more water for firefighting & to help protect their properties from fire. That request went unanswered for…
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) August 17, 2023
“There’s a dark but hard TRUTH to the Maui catastrophe that has led to over 110 tragic deaths. As wildfires raged, desperate residents petitioned state officials to send more water for firefighting & to help protect their properties from fire,” Ramaswamy said on Thursday. “That request went unanswered for hours, withholding critical aid to islanders.”
“Now we’re learning that the official who delayed the approval is an Obama Foundation “Asia Pacific Leader” & a climate activist who believes water should be “revered” first and foremost. The DEI agenda is literally costing people their lives. Hawaii’s Democrat governor, Josh Green, says there are people “fighting against the release of water to fight fires” & that it needs to be explored further,” Ramaswamy added.
“The No. 1 responsibility of government is to protect its citizens. The victims and their families deserve the TRUTH,” the presidential hopeful said.
In a letter to M. Kaleo Manuel, the deputy director of the water resource management commission for Hawaii’s DNLR, water company West Maui Land Co. detailed that there was a five-hour gap between the company’s request to divert water from streams in order to assist the Maui Fire Department (MFD) to battle the wildfires and the agency’s approval of the request.
Amid the delayed water request approval report, Manuel has since been temporarily reassigned to a different position within the state department, according to the Honolulu Civil Beat.
As noted by Ramaswamy, shortly after the delayed water request was reported, Manuel was quickly identified as a 2019 Asia Pacific leader by the Obama Foundation. In addition, an unearthed video of Manuel shows him describing his view that Hawaiians should “revere water” instead of use it, and that water management in modern society necessitates “true conversations about equity.”
As of press time, the death toll in Maui stands at 111 individuals as search efforts continue.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Vivek Ramaswamy” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
