LA Mayor Karen Bass stars to deflect blame for wildfires

LA Mayor Karen Bass has been very quiet in the media regarding the devastating wildfires, including explaining why she cut funding to the fire department as well as why she was traveling abroad at the time.

She is finally addressing the issues, but only to throw blame at other people.

I Will Not Travel

As a congresswoman, Bass had a reputation for international travel, so during her mayoral campaign, she had been directly asked about traveling abroad while serving as mayor if she would win.

Bass assured residents that she would stay put, stating, "Not only would I, of course, live here, but I also would not travel internationally—the only places I would go would be D.C., Sacramento, San Francisco, and New York, in relation to L.A."

Bass served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, particularly working on relations with Africa during her time in office, which is why the question was asked.

Yet, when the wildfires broke out, Bass was in Ghana, breaking her promise not to travel internationally as the mayor of LA.

You Were Warned

The wildfire season in California can almost be set by a clock, so the timing of the trip was rather odd to begin with. However, there were also warnings that were issued regarding budgetary cuts.

In December, LAFD Fire Chief Kristin Crowley was worried about how cuts would impact the upcoming wildfire season responses, with nearly $18 million having been trimmed.

Crowley wrote the Board of Fire Commissioners, stating that responses would be limited and the cuts "have adversely affected the Department's ability to maintain core operations." She specifically mentioned the cuts in OT pay, stating that it "severely limited the Department's capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies."

Bass denied the cuts had any impact on the response, stating, "There were no reductions that were made that would have impacted the situation that we were dealing with over the last couple of days."

Pointing Fingers

It has taken quite some time, but Bass has finally decided how to handle this debacle, and that is by pointing the finger at others, stating, "It didn’t reach that level to me to say 'Something terrible could happen and maybe you shouldn’t have gone on the trip.'"

She added, "I think that’s one of the things we need to look at, everything that happened, including that, needs to be examined."

That, of course, is a lie, as the National Weather Service had issued a "fire weather warning" on January 3, the day before the mayor left for Ghana. If she had been doing her job, she would have seen the warning and canceled her trip. She did not return to California until January 8, with the fires breaking out near the Pacific Palisades on January 7.

Bill Maher referred to her as the "Nero of American politics," "fiddling in Ghana while the city burned." The bottom line here is that Bass vowed not to travel internationally, and she broke that vow. It just so happened that some of the worst wildfires we have ever seen broke out at that time, with Bass in the air for nearly the first full day of them so she could attend a presidential inauguration in Africa. It's a disgrace, and she must be held accountable.