Images of LA Mayor Karen Bass At Ghana Cocktail Party As Palisades Fire Erupted Triggers Outrage: ‘Reprehensible!’
CBS News
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) is facing more backlash amid the Pacific Palisades fires as images of her at a cocktail party when the fires first broke out have made their way across social media.
The Los Angeles Times reported about Bass’s overseas trip to Ghana:
Bass was in the West African nation as part of a Biden administration delegation to the inauguration of Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama, which she had attended earlier in the day. She traveled abroad on Jan. 4 as the National Weather Service intensified warnings about a coming windstorm and arrived back in Los Angeles at around 11 a.m. on Jan. 8, more than 24 hours after the fires ignited.
A spokesperson for the mayor said the U.S. Ambassador to Ghana hosted the reception for the delegation before the group departed for the United States on a military plane. Bass spent most of the party making calls in a separate room, he said.
Bass was previously confronted about her trip, as well as a cut to the fire budget just months before the current fires, which have destroyed thousands of homes and claimed dozens of lives.
Images of Bass at her cocktail party have ignited criticism, even from Bass’s own fellow Democrats.
“If this were a Republican, Democrats would be (rightly) making it an issue. The Mayor should at least just acknowledge that she made the wrong judgment here,” Pod Save America co-host Jon Favreau wrote on X in response to the photos.
His co-host, Tommy Vietor — both he and Favreau were once aides to former President Barack Obama — admitted he wasn’t sure there is a way for Bass to “recover” from her current controversies.
“Not sure how you recover from this,” he wrote.
“Karen Bass… needs to be removed immediately. Her irresponsibility and apathy towards the people of Los Angeles is reprehensible,” activist and actress Justin Bateman wrote.
Bass was confronted this week about her trip, but deflected answering the question. She had also refused to answer the question when another reporter asked if she owed Los Angeles residents an apology.
