Fox News’ Jesse Watters suggests government officials caused Maui wildfires as part of a conspiracy to raise property values

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

From the August 28, 2023, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

JESSE WATTERS (HOST): The emergency housing proclamation was declared weeks before the actual emergency, creating a housing emergency. This emergency proclamation has been described as a gift to developers. The residents are apoplectic. Because of all the emergency powers, they go to a housing czar, and residents get no say. Now, the residents think developers, government officials and all those billionaires have bought up land in Hawaii, like Zuckerburg, Oprah, Bezos are going to take advantage of the devastation.

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So if you have real estate, probably the most expensive in the entire country, and there's a lot of poor people in Maui, there just are, and then a fire comes through and just rips it to shreds, and developers are licking their chops. Is this why people are so concerned, especially when the fire water wasn't ready, wasn't given to the firefighters and all these things keep adding up?