The Morning Briefing: I'm California Dreaming About Karen Bass Losing Her Job

Top O' the Briefing

Happy Thursday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Canzzebrusook felt that capers could be both ostentatious and amusing if served with crème fraîche and a hint of irony.

While this is specifically about the Los Angeles mayoral race, it's also about being in the political minority for a long time.

Even though California remained perfectly blue for the purposes of the 2024 presidential election, there were some redward shifts in precincts similar to those we saw elsewhere. It may not have been a revolution, but it was encouraging.

To the surprise of none of us on the right, California keeps swirling down the toilet while the Democrats are in charge. That's led to some very faint hopes for the Republican Party in both the gubernatorial race and the mayor's race in the City of Angels. Republican Steve Hilton is solidly in the top two for the open "jungle" primary for the race for governor. The top two advance to the general election, no matter the party.

In Los Angeles, former reality television star Spencer Pratt is running as a Republican, and his campaign has been absolutely brilliant. His experience in television is evident in the production value of every ad, as well as in his charisma in front of the camera. What's really helped his candidacy, though, is the fact that he lost his home in the Palisades Fire, enabling him to hit Bass hard in her greatest area of vulnerability.

Because California is still California, Bass leads in the polls. Pratt has been surging of late, however, thanks to independent voters. He's a real street fighter, which helps when mixing it up with veteran politicians. This is from something Catherine wrote yesterday:

Mayor Karen Bass’s Los Angeles uses taxpayer funds to provide free needles to drug addicts, fueling the homeless drug crisis in the city rather than solving it. Bass is now suddenly distancing herself from the program as her Republican opponent, Spencer Pratt, has released a devastating new ad on the pernicious program.

Here's the ad:

BUSTED: Karen Bass caught paying street ops in black vehicles passing out needles and tourniquets to keep addicts high so her NGO friends can continue to profit off their misery and steal their Medicare $$. These people are sick. I’m ending this madness and imposing mandatory… pic.twitter.com/QZPOaxVYL1
— Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) May 12, 2026

Her disastrous handling of the Palisades Fire may be, as I wrote earlier, her biggest vulnerability, but her tenure as mayor is a laundry list of brain-dead policies and failures. She should have already been laughed out of this race. Pratt may have a real shot.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE.

The California GOP has been one of the biggest clown cars in American politics for a couple of decades now. It probably doesn't know what to do with a couple of candidates who could win when they weren't supposed to. Think of a football team riding a 20-game losing streak that finds itself within a field goal — or even ahead — against a superior opponent in the fourth quarter. It's rarefied air, and teams like that rarely know how to close the deal.

Very often, municipal and state races that seem like gimmes for one party could have been won by the underdog with a slightly better turnout in a handful of precincts. If said underdog party doesn't have the organization to get more people to the polls, the best it can do is come oh-so-close and forever wonder what might have been.

The Republican Party at large has never been very strong with its get-out-the-vote efforts. President Trump has begun to change that culture, but the California GOP probably hasn't gotten up to speed on that. Every election day, Democrats deploy an army of union lackeys to drag people to the polls, whether they want to go or not. It's a formidable obstacle to overcome.

The wild card in the Los Angeles mayoral race is the unmitigated awfulness of Karen Bass. It's nigh on impossible to put lipstick on the pig that is her legacy as mayor. Pratt has the money to keep attacking Bass for the duration. He may very well be able to inspire a flood of independent voters to propel him to victory. He's so good at staying on message that some Democrats could shed their blinders. His potential path to a win is loaded with ifs, but the fact that he's in the conversation at all is miraculous.

I lived in Los Angeles for almost 25 years and have long called it my second hometown. It's heartbreaking to see what it has become. It's only been eight years since I left, and the damage that the Democrats have done in that relatively short period of time has been staggering. I'm too jaded to get my hopes up about Spencer Pratt knocking off Karen Bass, but not so jaded that I've stopped believing in miracles.

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POTUS Press Today

Here's the schedule for the rest of the week.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
05/11/26

THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2026

Out-of-Town Travel Pool
TV Crew: FOX
Photos: AP, AFP, NYT, Reuters, Getty
Print: AFP
Additional Print: Bloomberg, Reuters, New York Post
Radio: NPR

CST:
7:35 AM Out-of-Town Travel Pool Call Time

8:00 AM THE PRESIDENT participates in Executive Time
Beijing, China
Closed Press

10:00 AM THE PRESIDENT participates in a Greeting with the President of the People's Republic of China
Great Hall of the People
Pre-Credentialed Media

10:15 AM THE PRESIDENT participates in a Bilateral Meeting with the President of the People's Republic of China
Great Hall of the People
Out-of-Town Travel Pool

6:00 PM THE PRESIDENT participates in a State Banquet with the President of the People's Republic of China
Great Hall of the People
Out-of-Town Travel Pool

FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2026

Out-of-Town Travel Pool
TV Crew: FOX
Photos: AP, AFP, NYT, Reuters, Getty
Print: AFP
Additional Print: Reuters, New York Times, New York Post
Radio: NPR

In-Town Pool
TV Corr & Crew: FOX
Secondary TV Corr & Crew: Sinclair
Photos: AP, AFP, NYT, Reuters, Getty
Print: New York Times
Secondary Print: RealClearPolitics
Radio: AURN
New Media: Timcast

EDT:
6:00 PM In Town Pool Call Time

CST:
8:55 AM Out-of-Town Travel Pool Call Time

8:00 AM THE PRESIDENT participates in Executive Time
Beijing, China
Closed Press

11:30 AM THE PRESIDENT participates in a Greeting and Friendship Photo with the President of the People's Republic of China
Beijing, China
Out-of-Town Travel Pool

11:40 AM THE PRESIDENT participates in a Bilateral Tea with the President of the People's Republic of China
Beijing, China
Out-of-Town Travel Pool

12:15 PM THE PRESIDENT participates in a Bilateral Lunch with the President of the People's Republic of China
Beijing, China
Closed Press

THE PRESIDENT departs Beijing, China, en route The White House
Beijing, China
Pre-Credentialed Media

THE PRESIDENT arrives The White House
The White House
Open Press

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