Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass could take some lessons from Donald Trump. When a reporter asked a question at Thursday's back-patting fire presser about why the city wasn't prepared for the fire even though there was warning, she didn't answer. She clumsily attempted to ignore and elide la pregunta.
But as they also say in Spanish, a language Bass knows because of her undying devotion to her El Jefe Fidel Castro, (yeah, she's a commie as I report nearby), if you el answer-o las preguntas you can el-leavo the presser más rápido.
She didn't do that.
Filled with hubris, with her system still filled with undigested Ghanaian food, the California Democrat couldn't explain why she left town, faked that she was in town on X, and couldn't explain herself. As she lamely responded at Thursday's news conference:
Let me just say first and foremost, my number one focus—and I think the focus of all of us here—with one voice is that we have to protect lives, we have to save lives and we have to save homes.
Now, this was wholly beside the point. The fires had already burned homes and killed people. The subtext of this passive-aggressive "answer" is that she didn't want to talk about her shortcomings. She wanted to distract people away from her failures.
Related: Good Intentions Might Be the Cause of Devastating Palisades Fire
At this point, she was interrupted by the reporter because he, like everyone else, could see she was avoiding the question.
But Bass pointed her finger in the air and began again.
Rest assured, rest assured. When that is done, when we are safe, when lives have been saved and homes have been saved, we will absolutely do an evaluation to look at what worked, what didn't work, and to correct or to hold accountable anybody, department, individual, etc., but my focus right now is on the lives and on the homes.
There were TV people at the presser. Couldn't at least one of them have held up their mirror to show Bass the number one screw-up in the room? Just one?
Watch Mayor Karen Bass’s incompetence in full display here at the most recent presser🚨 pic.twitter.com/CSZaFNOaeU
— Hunter Eagleman™ (@Hunter_Eagleman) January 9, 2025
One day before Bass left for Ghana to see the swearing-in of the new president, the mayor, who as a congresswoman made a very public point of announcing that she would not be attending Donald Trump's inauguration, was informed by the National Weather Service that there were extraordinary weather events happening the next days.
It looked something like this:
...LIFE THREATENING, DESTRUCTIVE, WIDESPREAD WINDSTORM TUESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH WEDNESDAY MORNING FOR PORTIONS OF LOS ANGELES AND EASTERN VENTURA COUNTIES-- WITH LONG DURATION OF RED FLAG CONDITIONS INTO THURSDAY-- POSSIBLY EXTENDING INTO FRIDAY... ...RED FLAG WARNINGS IN EFFECT FOR LOS ANGELES COUNTY AND MUCH OF VENTURA COUNTY---SEE TIMINGS IN HEADLINES BELOW... ......Offshore winds are now expected to develop rapidly early Tuesday morning, leading to an earlier start time of the Red Flag Warning for many areas. Confidence is high for a life threatening, destructive, widespread windstorm with dangerous fire weather conditions Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday morning, especially focused on the San Gabriel mountains and foothills, San Gabriel Valley, San Fernando Valley, Hollywood/Beverly Hills, coastal areas adjacent to the Sepulveda Pass, Simi Valley, and Santa Monica mountains into Malibu. Strong mountain wave wind activity will likely impact many of these areas, resulting in very strong, erratic, and damaging wind gusts, capable of widespread downed trees/powerlines, as well as widespread power outages. This windstorm will likely be as destructive as the 2011 windstorm that impacted Pasadena and nearby San Gabriel Valley foothills. This is a high end Red Flag event. Any new fires will have a high risk for very rapid fire spread and large fire growth, extreme fire behavior, and long range spotting.
She got the warning and then, the next day, boarded a plane to get out of the country.
Related: Incompetence Is Why Fire Insurance Companies Have Fled California
She went on a junket to Ghana mere weeks after Joe Biden had already slept there.
WATCH: A much higher quality video of Biden's nap during his meeting with world leaders in Africa.
— Jake Schneider (@jacobkschneider) December 4, 2024
Who's running the country? pic.twitter.com/loUx6ru8Cp
Why did Bass even go?
When someone asks a question, instead of eliding the issue, perhaps Bass could address it head-on. It's not hard. Tell the truth. Apologize.
She chose instead to highlight her own incompetence. She didn't mean to. She just did.
VodkaPundit has the story behind why Democrats like Bass fail up so often in his piece entitled So I Just Discovered Another Way California Sucks.
It's sobering and accurate.
Related: Where's the Water, Gavin?
We'll close with the ranting of a person who identifies himself as Cynical Publius. He speaks on the issue of competence and accountability.
America is having a crisis of incompetence.
And a big reason for that is that we also are having a crisis in accountability.
There was a time in America where when a leader's organization failed, he or she was held accountable for that organizational failure and was fired or forced to resign. But no longer.
Who has been held accountable for 20+ years of strategic military failures?
Who has been held accountable for the 2008 housing crash?
Who has been held accountable for ruining a generation of children over a flu that escaped from an American-funded Chinese virology lab?
Who has been held accountable for the cover-up of Biden's dementia?
Who has been held accountable for the disgraceful, Stalinist lawfare waged against Trump?
Who is now being held accountable for a modern American city burning to the ground?
Answer?
NO ONE.
That should cover it.
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