Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she “absolutely” made a mistake by being in Africa when the devastating wildfires broke out on Jan. 7 and swept across the greater Pacific Palisades in California.
“There is no question about that,” Bass said in an interview with NBCLA’s Conan Nolan posted Friday on YouTube with commenting disabled.
Weather reports warned of severe weather and fire conditions earlier in the week due to the Santa Ana windstorm. Yet Bass was in Africa to attend the president of Ghana’s inauguration as part of a four-member delegation sent by the Biden administration.
Bass’ absence at the start of the crisis ignited political discourse about her fitness to lead as mayor and the city’s preparedness under her leadership. Now she is hoping to rebuild the city’s trust in her leadership by guiding its recovery.
“I think that I have to demonstrate that every day by showing what we’re doing, what is working, what are the challenges. And, to bring Los Angeles forward,” said Bass. “I am focused on one thing and one thing only. That is to make sure that our city is able to recover and rebuild and that all of those individuals who live in the Palisades can go home.”
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene called Bass a “DEI Mayor,” and suggested in a Jan. 13 X post that diversity, equity and inclusion policies have “virtually destroyed this country.”
Democratic Rep. Becca Balint attacked Greene for how she used the term, suggesting she meant it as a slur.
“It’s become crystal clear that the phrase DEI is used in place of much more offensive terms,” she said during a House meeting.
Conservative writer and strategist Scott Jennings exchanged jibes with Texas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett on CNN as he criticized California’s diversity policies.
Jennings said the state decided “there were too many white men who were firefighters. And we need to have a program in California to make sure we don’t have enough white men as firefighters.”
Crockett fired back at Jennings, saying, “Stop trying to act as if only white men are the ones that are capable because right now, you’re sitting at a table with three very capable black women.”
Jennings asserted that Crockett misunderstood his intentions.
HBO’s Real Time host Bill Maher also responded to the fires with criticisms of DEI. Maher rebuked Mayor Bass' claim that “no reductions” to the fire department budget “impacted the situation.”
Maher quoted the LA fire chief Kristin Crowley, who reportedly said, “We are screaming to be properly funded” and the cuts “did impact our ability to provide service.”
He said sarcastically, “The good news is, our fire chief is a lesbian.”
The dynamics of the LA Fire Department’s funding have also become a hot topic. Bass originally proposed cuts, but the budget approved for this year ended up being $53 million more than last year, reported The New York Times.
