Democrats and media outlets were quick to blame climate change and oil companies for the devastating Palisades Fire that ravaged Los Angeles earlier this year. But that narrative crumbled on Wednesday when federal law enforcement officials charged a man with deliberately starting the fire. [emphasis, links added]
Federal prosecutors in California charged Jonathan Rinderknecht with one count of destruction of property by means of fire, a charge that carries a maximum time of 20 years in federal prison.
“While we cannot bring back what victims lost, we hope this criminal case brings some measure of justice to those affected by this horrific tragedy,” said acting U.S. attorney Bill Essayli.
The charge—which Essayli said was informed by witness statements, video surveillance, cell phone data, and an analysis of fire dynamics conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives—cuts against the narrative prominent Democratic lawmakers and media outlets pushed following the tragic event.
“If you don’t believe in science, believe your own damn eyes,” Gov. Gavin Newsom (D., Calif.) wrote in a post with photographs of the Los Angeles fire.
The post came in response to news that President Donald Trump would withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accords in January.
After prosecutors announced the charge against Rinderknecht on Wednesday, Newsom wrote, “it marks an important step toward uncovering how the horrific Palisades Fire began.”
Today’s arrest of 29-year-old Florida resident Jonathan Rinderknecht marks an important step toward uncovering how the horrific Palisades Fire began and bringing closure to the thousands of Californians whose lives were upended. pic.twitter.com/aSBRgcvSCf
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) October 8, 2025
During his farewell address from the Oval Office, then-President Joe Biden blamed the fire on the “existential threat of climate change.”
“The scale of damage and loss is unimaginable,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote on X amid the fire. “Climate change is real, not ‘a hoax.’ Donald Trump must treat this like the existential crisis it is.”
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, added it is time to “demand real action.” “The GOP majority can no longer ignore the climate crisis or the solutions that will actually make meaningful change.”
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Tex.) chimed in as well: “I’m so heartbroken at the devastation that’s continuously inflicted upon our country & the world & elected ‘leaders’ are ignorant, impotent, or just incompetent to doing the smart thing, which is to acknowledge that climate change is real & start to solve it.”
California state senator Scott Wiener (D.), meanwhile, introduced legislation that would have allowed victims of the fire to sue oil companies for related damages.
Such a bill would have had a destructive impact on the oil industry—the fire caused more than $95 billion in property and capital losses, according to a UCLA report published in February.
And, like Democrats, the New York Times, Associated Press, NPR, USA Today, NBC News, CNN, the Guardian, and the Los Angeles Times all pegged climate change [as the cause of] the fire.
Those stories had headlines like the Guardian‘s “The Los Angeles wildfires are climate disasters compounded,” the Los Angeles Times‘s “How climate change worsened the most destructive wildfires in L.A. history,” and NBC News’s “How weather driven by climate change helped fuel the Southern California fires.”
David Axelrod, a longtime Democratic strategist and CNN commentator, shared an Associated Press story titled “It’s not really the typical time for nasty California fires. What changed that?”
He urged his followers to read it: “Consider the fact that Trump has called climate change a ‘hoax,’ and plans to scrap efforts to slow it’s [sic] progress,” he wrote.
Read rest at Free Beacon
