Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass refused to answer any questions on Wednesday after she was asked if she regretted “cutting the fire department’s budget by millions of dollars” and being out of the country as homes in the LA area were destroyed by wildfires.
Sky News senior correspondent David Blevins confronted Bass at Los Angeles International Airport after she returned from a controversial trip to Ghana amid the ongoing Southern California wildfires, which have left five dead and destroyed thousands of properties.
“Do you owe citizens an apology for being absent while their homes were burning?” questioned Blevins as Bass ignored him and looked away. “Do you regret cutting the fire department’s budget by millions of dollars, madame mayor? Have you nothing to say today? Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today?”
Bass continued to ignore the reporter as he remarked, “Elon Musk says that you’re utterly incompetent. Are you considering your position? Madame mayor, have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today who are dealing with this disaster? No apology for them? Do you think you should have been visiting Ghana while this was unfolding back home?”
Blevins followed Bass as she walked away and made an exit through a fire escape.
“Madame mayor, let me ask you just again, have you anything to say to the citizens today as you return?” he asked. “Madame Mayor, just
While Bass refused to answer any of Blevins questions for more than a minute-and-a-half, she went on to deliver a speech at a press conference later on Wednesday.
At the press conference, Bass said she felt “incredible sympathy and concern” for victims of the wildfires and sent her “condolences to the families who lost loved ones, [and] to the families and neighborhoods who have lost property.”
Bass received heavy criticism from Californians this week after she managed the response to the wildfires from Ghana, having left for the African country on Saturday.
The mayor was also criticized for having cut the budget of the fire department by nearly $18 million before the wildfires broke out.
Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley warned just weeks before the disaster that the cut had “severely limited the department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires.
Watch above via Sky News.