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Karen Bass, the first Black woman to serve as mayor of the city of Los Angeles, has become a target of conservatives seeking to politicize the devastating California fires.
Bass was out of the country on a diplomatic trip to Ghana when the LA fires first began. She quickly flew back to the states as the situation rapidly escalated. Ever since, Bass has been regularly updating residents and working alongside the state and federal government to secure resources and aid.
Still, conservatives in California and across the country have circulated misleading information in an attempt to discredit the mayor.
Republicans have made claims that Bass cut significant funding to the LA’s fire department. They’ve asserted that this led to the first department being underprepared for the scale of the fires.
In reality, while the department’s budget did face some cuts (roughly $17M), it amounted to roughly a 2% total cut. And that reduced budget was supplemented with grants and other funding to ensure the department had necessary resources.
Other rumors swirling around far-right media claim that the fire hydrants across Los Angeles were empty. Those spreading the rumors insinuated that Bass’s budget cuts someone left hydrants without adequate water to fight fires.
LA fires were impossible to control, but Republicans still fight to blame Bass
Hydrants across the city did go dry as firefighters attempted to quell the blazes, but not for lack of city leadership. The fires were beyond anything experienced in the city’s history.
One hundred mile-per-hour winds allowed fires to spread at a rate of nearly a quarter mile a minute. Firefighting aircraft couldn’t assist with water drops, because the strong winds made it impossible to fly. This left ground crews with only hydrants to combat a fire that was burning thousands of homes and businesses.
Between the massive amounts of fire used by firefighters, and the water used by homeowners desperately attempting to douse their homes with garden hoses, the system simply collapsed under the pressure.
And yet, despite these circumstances, the burden of fault is falling heavily on the shoulders of Mayor Karen Bass.
She’s receiving blowback for not appearing on television enough, but receives feedback for the overly-optimistic tone she strikes when she is on TV. She’s visited the devastation, but is still blamed for being absent. Mayor Bass has worked consistently with both President Biden and President Trump, but is condemned for “not doing enough”.
She faces of opposition from the current president and congressional leaders who want to place conditions on California receiving aid. And Bass also faces both a potential recall election and a second challenge from Rick Caruso, who ran against her in 2022.
Still, Bass is remaining focused on her work to help her city recover from the greatest natural disaster it’s faced.