LA Mayor Karen Bass promised before being elected to not go abroad then was caught in Ghana when fires erupted
LA Mayor Karen Bass promised voters before being elected that she would not travel abroad — only to be caught gallivanting around Ghana when the worst wildfires in the city’s history broke out last week.Just a year before she took office, Bass pledged to the New York Times that if elected, “Not only would I of course live here [in Los Angeles], but I also would not travel internationally — the only places I would go would be DC, Sacramento, San Francisco and New York, in relation to LA.”The former congresswoman was addressing questions about her previous globe-trotting as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee at the time.But Bass has since broken that promise at least five times this year alone, including when critics say she skirted her duties back home by recently traveling to Africa for Ghana’s presidential inauguration — as LA’s devastating wildfires broke out.Bass went to Africa to ring in the inauguration of Ghana’s 14th president, John Dramani Mahama, four days before the wildfires began Tuesday.Before that while mayor, she had gone to Mexico for the inauguration of President Claudia Sheinbaum and three times to France for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, the Times said.Rivals and constituents across the aisle have levied heavy criticisms against the mayor for going abroad.Even liberal Los Angelenos have been outraged at their Democratic mayor as they grapple with the deadly devastating blazes that have killed at last 16 people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses, with some of hte fires still burning out of control.Conservatives are calling for her resignation alongside California Gov.
Gavin Newsom.Firefighters who endorsed her opponent Rick Caruso during the 2022 mayoral race have accused Bass of cutting their budget, hampering their blaze-fighting efforts.
Even the city’s fire chief told a reporter last week that she believed the Los Angeles Fire Department had been failed by the city’s leaders.“My message is ...