Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass may have been trying to reassure locals that she’s up to the task of leadership with large portions of her city on fire, but a tone-deaf social media video isn’t helping her cause.
The embattled career politician is in the midst of the type of full-blown crisis that she likely never imagined when Democrats unwisely elected her to head up the nation’s second-largest city and the devastating wildfires that have burned down thousands of homes have served notice on the locals that competence matters with calls for her to resign or be recalled growing louder by the day.
Now Bass is taking heavy fire for the weekend video in which she appeared to be smirking and smiling while delivering a message about the “unbearable loss” suffered by those who have lost everything in the inferno that continues to rage out of control.
“I’ve seen the devastation firsthand. These fires across our region have changed lives forever,” Bass said in the video caption posted to X. “The days ahead will be challenging but we WILL get through this crisis, together.”
I’ve seen the devastation firsthand.
These fires across our region have changed lives forever.
The days ahead will be challenging but we WILL get through this crisis, together.
Thank you to all the first responders who are working day and night doing everything possible to… pic.twitter.com/tMGmtaCRhn
— Mayor Karen Bass (@MayorOfLA) January 12, 2025
“To any of you and all of you who have experienced a loss, the grief, the anger, the just utter shock – I’ve seen the devastation, it is unbelievable the amount of loss that people have experienced,” the mayor said with a smile on her face.
If Bass and her public relations team thought that the video would be a soothing influence they soon found out that they were badly mistaken as the mayor was torched by X users.
Watch this video with the sound off and without the caption. You would think Bass was announcing her plans for galas leading up to the next Olympics in LA.
Why. Is. She. Smiling. So. Much? https://t.co/QjqwZh5Mah
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) January 12, 2025
Why are smiling throughout this video?
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) January 12, 2025
Is it just me, or is it kind of disturbing that she can’t stop smiling? At least Newsom can control his face muscles https://t.co/3lWY83wZeD
— Max Meyer (@mualphaxi) January 12, 2025
This woman is a psychopath. She can barely contain her glee at the destruction. Her delighted face tells me it’s not incompetence, she’s a Marxist intentionally destroying Western civilization. https://t.co/hd2QIuBBwY pic.twitter.com/2aEZQTtOFX
— Tim Acheson (@timacheson) January 12, 2025
Lady, I don’t know how to tell you nothing that you say comes across as authentic or with feeling. You’re smiling and people are burned alive in their homes.
Just resign and get it over with.
— Tired of being politically correct (@USBornNRaised) January 12, 2025
I bet if you lost your home you wouldn’t be smiling.
You need to step down or be removed from office!
— Suhr Majesty™ (@ULTRA_MAJESTY) January 12, 2025
It didn’t help Bass that she was on a junket in Africa when the fires first broke out even though the National Weather Service was sounding the alarm about the potential for high winds. She was schmoozing with Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama during his inauguration and left the City of Angels leaderless.
Bass’s globetrotting has been a feature of her mayorship and broke a campaign pledge that she wouldn’t travel internationally if elected.
In resurfaced comments from a 2021 interview with the New York Times, the then congresswoman promised that if she won the election, she would be a stay-at-home mayor in response to a question about her extensive travels as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Bass told the paper “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.”
Which was of course a lie.
The trip to Africa isn’t the only time Bass hasn’t kept her word since being elected mayor. She also traveled to Mexico for President Claudia Sheinbaum’s inauguration and three times to Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.
An online petition demanding Bass’s immediate resignation has gathered over 118,000 verified signatures as of early Monday morning.
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