Following the first rally of her campaign for mayor of Los Angeles in 2021, Karen Bass spoke candidly about what she sees as a potential drawback to the job — a lack of world travel and involvement in global affairs.
Ms. Bass was accustomed to traveling the world as a Democratic member of Congress and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and had spent decades working on U.S.-Africa relations. It was one of the most interesting parts of his political career, he told The New York Times in an interview on October 17, 2021, at his home in the Baldwin Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles.
“I used to go to Africa all the time, every few months,” she said, adding, “The idea of leaving that, especially international work and Africa work, I said, ‘Mmm, I don’t think I can do that. I want.” to do that.'”
Ultimately she decided she did just that, telling the Times that if she were elected mayor, “not only would I definitely stay here, but I also wouldn’t travel internationally — I would only go to D.C., Sacramento, San Francisco. And will go to other places.” Regarding New York, LA”
That promise has been broken spectacularly.
When deadly and destructive wildfires raged in the Los Angeles area on Tuesday, Mayer was on her way home from Ghana in West Africa, where she had attended the inauguration of a new president.
This was not his first foreign trip as mayor. A review of her public daily schedule over the past year shows Ms. Bass has traveled out of the country at the city’s expense at least four times in recent months before the Ghana trip — once for the inauguration of President Claudia Sheinbaum. Mexico three more times. France’s timing for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
His broken promise to cut back on foreign travel and his busy international schedule by the time he becomes mayor in December 2022 barely registered with the public before the wildfires, and Los Angeles voters accepted — and in some cases welcomed — also identified the mayor not only as a municipal leader but also as a Washington-style global player. Now, however, her decision to leave the country at a time when the National Weather Service was warning of “extreme fire weather conditions” has created a political crisis for Ms Bass.
The rivals have attacked fiercely. Liberal supporters whose homes were burned have turned into angry critics. An online petition demanding his immediate resignation has garnered more than 100,000 signatures. MAGA Republicans and their allies have Crowd gathered on social mediaExploiting and exploiting anger.
Firefighters, whose union endorsed Rick Caruso, his opponent in the mayoral race, have accused him of cutting fire department funding, a false and misleading claim. Kristin M. Crowley, the city’s fire chief, when pressured by a Reporter for a local Fox News affiliateadmitted that he feels the fire department has been failed by the city government.
The fallout jeopardizes Ms. Bass’s ability to lead as the city faces a long road to recovery from one of the most widespread disasters in Southern California history, as well as a preparation for the 2028 Olympic Games. There is also a surprising mandate. Rebuilding after the 1992 Los Angeles riots took decades.
“I think it’s pretty devastating for him to be out of the state and not be in office when the crisis started,” said Rob Stutzman, a Republican political consultant and aide to former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. “This is the biggest disaster in Los Angeles since the Watts riots. As mayor you have a job. We have to stay here and lead. “It was not unexpected like an earthquake.”
Mayor Bass did not personally respond to multiple requests for comment.
Her spokesman Zach Seidel said the mayor is “focusing on the ongoing response and recovery efforts.” In his 2021 remarks about the trip, he said: “With the Olympics coming up, this city owns and operates the largest international trade center in the country, and a third of Angelenos were born abroad, it’s, sure Apparently, there was a miscommunication – the mayor of Los Angeles travels internationally regularly.”
In press conferences, Ms. Bass, 71, has repeatedly acknowledged the city’s grief and anger, and urged residents to “lock down” and “reject those who want to divide us.” He promised that after the fire is extinguished, “we will have a full accounting of what worked and, especially, what did not work.”
On Wednesday, shortly after her return, she said that she had made the trip at the request of the Biden administration, that she had been in “constant contact” with local, federal and county officials after the fire, and that she made a trip to the United States. Military flight to come back as soon as possible.
“I was on the plane, on the phone almost every hour of the flight,” she told reporters at a news conference, where she was surrounded by emergency officials. “Although I was not physically here, I was in touch with many people who were standing here the whole time. When my flight landed, I immediately went to the fire zone and saw what had happened in Pacific Palisades.”
Known for her collaborative style, Ms. Bass has deep roots in Los Angeles and enjoys deep trust among the city’s mostly liberal voters. He was widely praised for his handling of crises before the wildfires, including a series of landslides and winter floods last year and the rapid restoration of a section of Interstate 10 in 2023 after it was severely damaged by the fires. She accepted the Olympic flag during a visit to France as the first black woman to represent the host city Widely regarded as history-makingAnd his domestic travels often produced results that benefited his city.
In late April, he led a bipartisan delegation of mayors to Washington, D.C. There, they successfully lobbied federal leaders to expand veterans’ eligibility for housing vouchers, a change that would have been widespread in Los Angeles and across the United States. It is expected to play an important role in addressing homelessness.
But his journey – domestically and internationally – has at times become complicated for him in dealing with civil emergencies. Her trip to Ghana was not the first time she was out of town, with crises and news stories big and small.
During that trip to Washington in late April, a pro-Palestinian protest at UCLA turned violent. She cut the trip short and flew back, releasing on 1 May. statement On the way to reassure residents.
While she was in France in August for the closing ceremonies of the Olympics, Governor Gavin Newsom appeared on a central city underpass to make the case that local governments need to do more to clean up homeless camps. While she was in Paris for the Paralympic Games in September, the National Weather Service issued an extreme heat warning for Los Angeles, with a forecast of 117 degrees. A show at the Hollywood Bowl had to be canceled due to a power outage.
None of those visits generated complaints. The UCLA protest was handled by multiple jurisdictions, and Los Angeles is scheduled to host the 2028 Olympic Games.
Municipal administration, like many other working sectors, has become increasingly mobile. Computers, cellphones and video conferencing let elected leaders work remotely, and the chain of command specifies who is in charge when an official is out of town or out of state.
The mayor’s office released its public schedule for Saturday, January 4, shortly after midnight that day, stating that President Biden had asked him to help represent the United States at the January 7 inauguration ceremony in Ghana. Said. Ms Bass left later on Saturday morning. Marquis Harris-Dawson, Los Angeles City Council President and a mayor advisorAfter his departure, she became the acting mayor.
The National Weather Service’s Los Angeles office began broadcasting increasingly severe messages about heavy winds on Sunday. A red flag warning issued Sunday about fire danger was upgraded to a “particularly hazardous conditions” warning on Monday, only the fifth time the agency had issued such a warning for Los Angeles.
“ALERT!!! A life-threatening, destructive, widespread hurricane is expected,” the agency posted Do not happen.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, as the fire raged, Mr. Harris-Dawson, the acting mayor, said he received minute-by-minute briefings from the heads of various agencies, including those overseeing law enforcement, fire, water and transportation. He addressed the public at news conferences as the city’s top elected official. He applied to Ms. Bass at the city’s emergency operations center. He approved declaring a state of emergency in the city.
Mr Harris-Dawson said that despite the eight-hour time difference between California and Ghana, Ms Bass was also listening to the briefing and participated in decision-making. She could also make phone calls while flying home, she said, because she was on a military plane, which was available to her because she was on a diplomatic mission.
“It wasn’t like I’m in a room and I have to make this decision,” Mr. Harris-Dawson said. “I’m the acting mayor, and the mayor-elect is on the phone, and they’re getting the same information I’m getting. “It was really more of a collaboration than just putting in a temporary mayor.”
Mr. Harris-Dawson said he spoke to Ms. Bass on the phone on Monday, when it was becoming clear that wind speeds could reach 100 mph. “Then, in the conversation with the mayor, she said, ‘I Coming’ “I’ll come home at once, as soon as I can get there,” he said.
James Hahn, who was mayor of Los Angeles from 2001 to 2005, was in Washington at the time of the September 11 terrorist attacks. He was unable to return to Los Angeles for several days due to flights being grounded, but nevertheless, he was criticized for years for being absent from the city. When he ran for re-election and lost it became a talking point used by his opponents.
“There was no one who came back to the West Coast faster than me,” Mr. Hahn said in an interview. “I was on the first plane that was in the air. It was 60 hours – I timed it – but you would have thought I was gone for two weeks instead of two days.
Mr. Hahn, now a judge on the Los Angeles County Superior Court in Santa Monica, said that perception still persists. “To this day,” he said, “people think it took me a long time to come back to L.A.”
Mr. Hahn said Mayor Bass’ response to the crisis has impressed him. She said that by the time she returned to the city, a state of emergency had already been declared.
“This was an unprecedented event,” he said. “People don’t want to admit it, and I understand they’re in pain. People have lost everything. People lost their lives. And the first reaction is, ‘Whose fault is it?’ And I think the first response should be, ‘How do we help people who have lost everything?'”
thomas fuller And Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs Contributed to the reporting.