Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass became stone-faced when confronted by a reporter as she returned to America to find her city burning Wednesday.
“Do you owe citizens an apology for being absent while their homes were burning, and do you regret cutting the fire department budget by millions of dollars, Madam Mayor?” Sky News reporter David Blevins asked as Bass waited to deplane.
“Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today?” he added.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass refused to answer when asked if she owed residents of her city an apology for being absent during the city’s wildfires. Sky News
Bass was also asked if she regrets cutting the fire department’s budget. Sky News
A car on fire as the Eaton Fire moves through Altadena on Jan. 8, 2025. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesBass — standing a few feet away on the plane’s ramp as she awaited clearance to leave — stared blankly as Blevins questioned her, refusing to provide an answer or even acknowledge his presence.
As she walked up the ramp into the airport, she continued to ignore the reporter as he followed and asked for comment.
“No apology for them? Do you think you should have been visiting Ghana while this was unfolding back home?” he said.
“Madam Mayor, let me ask you just again, have you anything to say to the citizens today as you return?”
Stay up to date with the NYP’s coverage of the terrifying LA-area fires
- A timeline of the LA Fires — from early weather warnings to rampant blazes
- ‘Extreme’ risk of LA fires spreading, new blazes sparking with return of dangerous 75 mph Santa Ana winds
- Trump anticipates rising death toll in LA wildfires: ‘We’re gonna find many bodies and many more, many more dead’
- Deadly Palisades Fire set ‘maliciously’ by Florida firebug Jonathan Rinderknecht, feds say
The three fires still burning in LA as of Tuesday — Hurst, Palisades and Eaton — and the acreage they have burned. New York Post
Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom getting a briefing about the Palisades Fire. ALLISON DINNER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
A firefighter extinguishes a fire in Pacific Palisades on Jan. 7, 2025. Jon Putman/Zuma / SplashNews.com
The Palisades Fire seen in Malibu on Jan. 7, 2025. Amy Katz/Zuma / SplashNews.comBass then walked out of the terminal and left the reporter behind without answering.
The mayor has been under fire for being 7,400 miles away in Africa to attend the inauguration of Ghana’s president as wildfires devoured Los Angeles on Tuesday.
More than 30,000 acres (47 square miles) are burning across three separate fires around the city, as the Santa Ana winds fan the flames ahead of desperate firefighters struggling to keep up.
Thousands of buildings have been lost, and after just two days, the fires have already been named the most destructive in LA’s history.
Many have blamed Bass for the disaster — citing the $17.6 million cut she made to the Los Angeles Fire Department’s budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year.
And that came up shy of the $20 million she wanted slashed.
For many, her absence as the fires burned spoke volumes.
“Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is on a taxpayer-funded trip to Africa as part of a Biden administration presidential delegation WHILE HER CITY IS BURNING TO THE GROUND,” America First Works president Ashley Hayek wrote on X.
“This is INSANE.”
