ABC’s Raddatz Contradicts LA Mayor Karen Bass on Trump Border Success – After Interview is Over

ABC’s Martha Raddatz interviewed Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for Sunday’s This Week, and her apparent flat contradiction of the Democrat’s remarks about the border soon after went viral on social media.

Raddatz spoke with Bass in Los Angeles for the latest This Week from ABC News, and the two talked about immigration and border enforcement actions by President Donald Trump, in the wake of massive protests, the sending in of the National Guard, and multiple public immigration raids which the mayor has vocally opposed.

Raddatz at one point asked Bass whether anything good has come of Trump’s policies at the border, and on the streaming ABC News Live Weekend, Raddatz spoke with anchor Whit Johnson about that moment.

In the full interview for This Week, Raddatz prefaced the question by bringing up the state of the border under the previous administration.

“There were — there was hundreds of thousands of people crossing that border,” Raddatz said of illegal immigration under former president Joe Biden.

Speaking with Johnson about the interview, Raddatz summarized that portion of the interview by saying “I asked her about the million immigrants who are not documented, who live in her city, and she seemed to think they are all working and they should stay. But we asked her specifically about how this policy is impacting her city.”

Raddatz asked Bass: “When you look at that border today, is there anything good you think the administration has done in these six months at the border?”

“If you ask me, is there anything that they have done good in terms of immigration? I don’t know. I don’t think so,” said Bass. “I think that the viewpoint has been punitive, has been, let’s make it as miserable as possible so that these people don’t come.”

After playing the clip of the mayor’s response on ABC News Live, Raddatz concluded by saying, “Whatever they’re doing is certainly working at the border itself, Whit. We were down on that border and it is dramatically, dramatically different than it was a year ago, Whit.”

It was that streaming clip that went viral on X on Sunday, with some on the right expressing surprise that a mainstream journalist would acknowledge any success.

JOHNSON: The immigration crackdown. You traveled to California and spoke with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. What is she saying about how this is impacting the nation’s second biggest city?

RADDATZ: Karen Bass said, basically, it is completely outrageous what is happening. I asked her about the million immigrants who are not documented, who live in her city, and she seemed to think they are all working and they should stay. But we asked her specifically about how this policy is impacting her city.

BASS: Los Angeles is a city of immigrants, 3.8 million people and about 50 percent of our population is Latino and so when the raids started fear spread, fear spread like a virus around the entire county.

RADDATZ: Is there anything good you think the administration has done in these six months at the border?

BASS: Well, I will keep praise on the administration for the first six months in Los Angeles with the fires. If you ask me, is there anything that they have done good in terms of immigration, I don’t know. I don’t think so. I think that the viewpoint has been punitive, has been let’s make it as miserable as possible so that these people don’t come.

RADDATZ: And whatever they’re doing is certainly working at the border itself, Whit. We were down on that border and it is dramatically, dramatically different than it was a year ago, Whit.

Watch the clip above via ABC News Live.