Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has taken criticism for being in Africa at the beginning of the destructive wildfires – something she had previously pledged to avoid.
As Breitbart News reported last week, Bass had been visiting Ghana in Africa at the time of the wildfires, despite having over 24 hours’ notice ahead of what experts predicted would be the worst windstorm to hit Los Angeles since 2011.
According to the New York Times, her travel to Africa may already have been in violation of something promised when campaigning.
According to the New York Times, her travel to Africa may already have been in violation of something promised when campaigning.
When serving in Congress and on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Democrat Karen Bass routinely traveled abroad for U.S.-Africa relations, a part of her job that she previously told the New York Times that she would cut back on if elected Mayor of Los Angeles.
“I went to Africa every couple of months, all the time,” she said in 2021. “The idea of leaving that, especially the international work and the Africa work, I was like, ‘Mmm, I don’t think I want to do that.’”
Despite her misgivings, Bass said she would “not travel internationally.”
“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,” she said.
The Times admitted the mayor’s previous pledge was “spectacularly broken” by being in Africa at the onset of the wildfires. She had been attending the inauguration of a new president in Ghana – West Africa.
“A review of her public daily schedule for the past year shows that Ms. Bass has traveled out of the country at city expense at least four other times in recent months before the Ghana visit — once to Mexico for the inauguration of President Claudia Sheinbaum and three times to France for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris,” noted the Times.
Zach Seidl, the mayor’s spokesman, said Bass’s pledge may have been one of “miscommunication.”
“In light of the Olympics coming, that the city owns and operates the nation’s largest international trade hub, and that a third of Angelenos were born abroad, this was, of course, a miscommunication — mayors of Los Angeles routinely travel internationally,” said Seidl.
Republican political consultant Rob Stutzman said Bass being out of the country at the start of the fires may be “devastating for her.”
“This is the biggest disaster in Los Angeles since the Watts riots. You have one job as mayor. It’s to be here and be leading. This wasn’t unpredictable, like an earthquake,” said Stutzman.
Bass, however, maintains that she took the the Africa trip at the request of the Biden administration, adding that she returned on a military flight while being in “constant contact” with local, federal, and county officials.
“I was on the phone, on the plane, almost every hour of the flight,” she told reporters. “So although I was not physically here, I was in contact with many of the individuals that are standing here throughout the entire time. When my flight landed, I immediately went to the fire zone and saw what happened in Pacific Palisades.”
Reports also indicated Mayor Bass cut nearly $20 million from the Los Angeles Fire Department budget, which LAFD fire chief Kristin Crowley says hindered firefighters’ ability to repel the blaze.
“This isn’t a new problem for us,” Crowley said. “The fire department needs to be funded appropriately so that I can look any community member in the eye and say your LAFD’s got your back.”
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