It's said that Emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned, but Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass did no such thing — she just took a taxpayer-funded trip to the Paris Olympics while cutting $17 million from the fire department's budget and ignoring the cries of her fire chief.
Three, actually. Three taxpayer-funded trips to the Paris Olympics that lasted two weeks. But just think of the miles she earned.
Sure, Bass was in Ghana on a White House junket when the fires broke out last week, but that was sheer dumb luck. A New York Times report today indicates that Bass views her position as part-time at best.
"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," the NYT reported. "Once to Mexico for the inauguration of President Claudia Sheinbaum and three times to France for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris."
It gets worse. Bass had explicitly promised during the 2022 mayoral race to reduce her foreign travel, even though she didn't want to.
And Another Thing: How does anyone travel to the same European city (from California!) three times in two weeks? When my wife and I were invited to her best friend's wedding in the UK 20 years ago, we decided to make it a two-week stay. One does not travel that far just for a couple of nights. People would ask, "What are you going to do in London for two weeks?" And I'd say, "The same thing everybody else does: look for good Italian." Then again, we had to travel on our own dime.
Bass "spoke candidly," according to the Times, "about what she saw as a potential drawback to the job — a lack of world travel and involvement in global affairs."
“I went to Africa every couple of months, all the time,” she said in a 2021 interview. “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.’”
"It's only a drawback if you let it be a drawback," seems to be Bass's can-do attitude now that she's safely ensconced in office (for now) although you wonder if voters will admire it.
This was the promise she made then: "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."
This is what the NYT published today: "That pledge has been spectacularly broken."
As Robert Sterling put it on X, "The fact that this is the top story in the New York Times means the left is hanging her out to dry. They know she’s toast, so they’re sacrificing her to protect Newsom, their preferred candidate for 2028."
What was Stephen Kruiser just telling you in today's Morning Briefing? Oh, right — this: "By the time the next presidential campaign cycle rolls around, Gavin Newsom's slow-kid response to the Los Angeles fires will have been shelved by the Democrats and they will be all-in on treating him like the second coming of JFK."
I would remind you now that Bass is mayor because Barack Obama put his commie thumb on the scale. "His support helps add weight to Bass’ campaign argument that she’s the only real Democrat in the race and that her opponent, Rick Caruso, became one out of political expediency," the L.A. Times reported during the mayoral primaries.
Here's the mayor Los Angeles could have had:
Los Angeles needs to fully fund our fire department and restore the lost resources from 2009. As mayor, I will protect those that put their lives on the line to safeguard our communities. #CarusoCan pic.twitter.com/bXeQFpYlao
— Rick J. Caruso (@RickCarusoLA) July 1, 2022
And here's the mayor it does have:
If Karen Bass was a Republican, this clip would be playing on television 24/7. pic.twitter.com/KZUxkHUOCB
— World Hall Of Fun (@WorldHallOfFun) January 12, 2025
Los Angeles chose... poorly.
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