Jemele Hill Attacks Kardashians, Makes False Claims About LA Fire Chief on MSNBC in Defense of Mayor Karen Bass

MSNBC guest Jemele Hill lashed out at the Kardashian family and connected their personal water usage to shortages during the wildfires after Khloé Kardashian criticized Democratic L.A. Mayor Karen Bass in a post on Instagram over the city and county response to the devastating and deadly wildfires that have been tearing through homes and businesses for the last week.

Kardashian drew viral attention over the weekend after posting a video of Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, who is a first responder and firefighter, stating that budget cuts have hurt the ability of firefighters to respond to emergencies and do their jobs, something Crowley also stated very clearly in a letter to the city back in December.

Kardashian shared the video of Crowley speaking with KTTV Fox 11 last week in a interview that sparked rumors she was going to be fired by the Democrat mayor. The mayor’s office denied those rumors and the two appeared together at a press conference the next day, where Bass acted surprised that anyone would suggest such a thing.

“I stand by YOU Chief Crowley!!!!” Kardashian wrote. “You spoke the truth and you had tears in your eyes because I can tell you didn’t even want to say that but it was THE TRUTH!!!!”

Instagram/@ChloéKardashian

“Mayor Bass you are a joke!!!!” she wrote.

The reporter whose interview of Crowley went viral and made international news, Gigi Graciette, also noted the emotion in Crowley’s response when speaking later in the evening about the fallout.

On MSNBC on Sunday, Jemele Hill joined host Al Sharpton for the latest PoliticsNation, where she went after the Kardashian family hard, and falsely claimed that Crowley said the budget was not a problem.

After Sharpton brought up the criticism of Bass, Hill defended her, as she has done online, by implying a connection between their personal usage and the empty reservoir and hydrants without water during the wildfires – something others have criticized the city over.

“What I would encourage everybody who’s watching this program right now to do Google, Khloe Kardashian and the Kardashians and water usage, you’ll find some very interesting information because their family alone? The amount of water they use is so excessive that it was a news story, a big news story here in Los Angeles,” she said.

Chief Kristin Crowley, who sent multiple letters to the city stating that lack of funds and budget cuts specifically would negatively impact readiness and response, said last week on air the last budget cut did affect the outcome of this particular set of wildfires in an interview with KTTV Los Angeles – the specific interview to which Hill was referring.

But to Sharpton, Hill falsely claimed that Crowley said the opposite, telling him that, “the fire chief herself said okay on television that that 17 million had nothing to do with why they were unable to fight these fires.”

Hill also brought up a fund set aside for raises for firefighters at the time of the cuts to the budget. That money was represented by a city official as an offset to the budget cuts, and then baselessly used by some in the media anxious to attack those perceived as being on the right to claim there were no cuts to the operational budget – a claim which the fire chief has repeatedly said is not the case.

Hill concluded by saying that “there will be time to assess mayor Karen Bass’s performance. I don’t know if now, in real time, as information is coming in and as we’re trying to understand that information if now’s the time.”

Look, I understand part of this is natural human reaction. This is a catastrophe here in Los Angeles like no one has seen before. And automatically people would have somebody to blame. It is what it is.

But what I would encourage everybody who’s watching this program right now to do Google, Khloe Kardashian and the Kardashians and water usage, you’ll find some very interesting information because their family alone? The amount of water they use is so excessive that it was a news story, a big news story here in Los Angeles. So I find that her comments to call out Mayor Bass and especially in a moment where people are just trying to survive and you are one of the most glamorous, privileged families in this city. And so for her to call mayor Bass a joke, it’s just not the time for that.

You know, listen, we don’t know the source of these fires. It’s so much information that we don’t have so much misinformation that has been allowed to really pollute this issue online. You know, between the back and forths between the fire department.

But the fire chief herself said that — even with however you want to frame these cuts, because the fire department did receive a raise, all right? I want everybody to understand that there was 17 million cut from the budget. Then there was another 50 million that they received in raises in salary because they were in the process of negotiation when the city budget happened.

The police, or, the fire chief herself said okay on television that that 17 million had nothing to do with why they were unable to fight these fires. The truth is sometimes very unsexy, and that’s what people don’t like.

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.