Bill Maher Slams LA Mayor As 'The Nero Of American Politics' Over Wildfires Response

LOADINGERROR LOADINGBill Maher has joined a burgeoning chorus of pundits in railing against Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass over an ill-timed trip to Ghana she took as her city became engulfed in ongoing wildfires.The wildfires have devastated Southern California since last Tuesday: More than 40,000 acres have burned, with some 80,000 residents still under mandatory evacuation orders, at least 27 people dead and over 12,000 structures destroyed, per CalFire.Advertisement Bass reportedly left for Ghana on Jan.

4 to attend the inauguration of the new president on Jan.7, and the Palisades Fire broke out later that day.

“I’m sure it’s very complicated,” Maher said on his show, “Real Time,” Friday.“That’s why I pay 13% of my income in this state every year to people who I assumed were working on things like this.”He continued, “When asked why so many of the hydrants in the Palisades ran out of water, Governor Newsom said, ‘The local folks are trying to figure that out.’ Yeah you gotta do that before the fire.”Advertisement Maher noted that “one of the three reservoirs for the Palisades was offline at the one time of year when it was most needed,” referring to the Santa Ynez Reservoir, which has been closed since February due to repairs, officials told the Los Angeles Times last week.“LA’s mayor, Karen Bass, the Nero of American politics, was fiddling in Ghana while the city burned and later placed the blame on ‘eight months of negligible rain, and winds that have not been seen in LA in at least 14 years,’” said Maher.

“Yeah, that’s not that long a time.”An aerial view of the devastation from the wildfires in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.Jill Connelly/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesAdvertisement He then countered her claim last week that there “were no reductions” in the fire department budget that would have impacted the response by quoting LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley, who told Fox 11 that it “was cut” and...