The astounding absence and silence of the LA mayor as her city burns

I’m not sure that there was ever a good time for Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass to be on a presidential diplomatic mission to Ghana. But if there was, it certainly was not this week. As wildfires raged across Southern California burning over 15,000 acres and forcing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate their homes, word spread that the mayor of the City of Angels was missing in action. 

Her former mayoral challenger, LA realtor Rick Caruso, spoke to Fox LA about the city’s mismanagement and the scale of the disaster: “We’ve got a mayor that’s out of the country, and we’ve got a city that’s burning.”

Despite the Los Angeles Times reassuring its readers of Bass’s “constant presence on social media” for the first twenty-four hours of the fires, when the mayor returned on Wednesday afternoon, there was no doubt that Caruso would be far from her only critic. 

Even so, I think it is safe to assume that Bass was not expecting a member of the media to ambush here upon landing. And were it left to the American media, she may well have made it from the commercial plane to her car unscathed. 

Fortunately, the British news network Sky News sent reporter David Blevins to meet Madame Mayor upon her landing at LAX. 

And the results of said meeting were nothing short of remarkable: rather than exiting with the normies on her flight and walking through the main airport, Bass and her staffer waited outside a jetway door that would have allowed her to exit directly on to the tarmac. 

The problem? There was some sort of delay at said door. Eventually a ramp agent on the other side of the glass signals to Bass that she has to walk to a different exit door. She hurriedly rushes to the second door only to have to wait for an airport worker to punch in an access code that finally grants a desperate Bass her escape. 

This entire process took over two minutes and gave Blevins the perfect opportunity to pepper the mayor with pointed questions, all while she silently stares ahead appearing as though she is trying to will the doors open with her mind:

Do you owe citizens an apology for being absent while their homes were burning?

Do you regret cutting the fire department budget by millions of dollars Madame Mayor? 

Have you nothing to say today? 

Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today? 

Elon Musk says that you are utterly incompetent — are you considering your position? 

Madame Mayor have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today who are dealing with this disaster?

No apology for them? 

Do you think you should’ve been visiting Ghana while this was unfolding back home? 

Madame Mayor, let me ask you just again have you anything to say to the citizens today as your return? 

Madame Mayor, just a few words for the citizens today as you return to deal with the catastrophe?

Bass did not respond to one of those questions.

I repeat, the Mayor of LA did not have one response to any of the ten basic questions she was asked about the ongoing disaster engulfing California. 

The video of the exchange has since gone viral, even garnering a response from Elon Musk who replied simply, “Incompetence kills.” 

After a tactical retreat, Bass eventually delivered an update from the more comfortable environs of a press conference podium. Yet it is her absence and initial silence that has stunned the California residents fleeing their homes.

It is one of those embarrassing, career-defining moments that used to make politicians resign in shame. But shame is a relic of the past. Don’t expect to see Karen Bass stepping down any time soon.