In a bizarre moment caught on camera, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was confronted by not one, but two locked doors while attempting to evade a persistent reporter.
Instead of responding to the journalist’s questions, the embattled local politico instead stared into space and refused to acknowledge him as she returned to the city—which is currently facing severe wildfires that have already killed five people and burned countless homes—from a trip to Ghana.
“Do you owe citizens an apology for being absent whilst their homes were burning?” a SkyNews reporter asked Bass as she stared in silence, apparently unsure where to go after struggling to open a locked door at her airport gate—a scene seemingly ripped from the satirical comedy Veep, in which Julia Louis Dreyfuss plays a gaffe-prone politician. “Have you nothing to say today? Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today?”
Bass was then captured on camera walking down a tunnel into another section of the airport, where she was confronted by yet another locked door, which halted her progress and subjected her to another few painful moments of questioning.
“Madam mayor, just a few words for the citizens today as you return?” the reporter says, garnering no response.
An airport employee rushed over to unlock the door and let Bass out onto the tarmac, where her car was waiting. The reporter did not follow.
Major fires have broken out across the Los Angeles area since Tuesday, fueled by devastating hurricane-force gusts from the Santa Ana winds.
The largest, the Palisades Fire, has burned over 15,000 acres, threatening Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica. The devastating fire has forced tens of thousands to evacuate and already destroyed over 1,000 buildings, officials said on Wednesday.
The active fires blazing in the Los Angeles area as of Wednesday evening, according to CalFire. / CalFire
The Eaton Fire has also burned another 10,000 acres in Pasadena, Altadena, and Sierra Madre is also at 0% containment as of Wednesday night.
“Unfortunately we have five reported civilian fatalities, a number of injuries, and over 1,000 structures damaged or destroyed,” Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony C. Marrone said. “The cause of the fire is unknown and under active investigation.”
As officials spoke at Wednesday night’s press conference, another brush fire sparked in the Hollywood Hills. “I don’t have a lot of information,” Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said. “I can tell you we are throwing all of our available resources at it as we speak.”
As wildfires continued to blaze across Los Angeles County on Wednesday, some Angelenos began zeroing in on Bass for early failures in battling the largest fire, which sparked in the tony neighborhood of Pacific Palisades on Tuesday morning.
“Fires in LA are sadly no surprise, yet the Mayor cut LA Fire Department’s budget by $23M,” wrote billionaire Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong in a post on X. “And reports of empty fire hydrants raise serious questions. Competence matters…”
The Los Angeles city government reduced funding for the fire department by more than $17 million from the previous year for fiscal year 2025, which began in July.
When pressed by reporters about the funding cuts, Bass claimed that “within this fiscal year, LAFD would actually go above what was allocated on July 1.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass speaks to California Gov. Gavin Newsom after returning to handle the wildfires burning in the city. / MediaNews Group/Orange County Re / MediaNews Group via Getty Images
Bass was also absent from the first press conferences on Tuesday with Los Angeles officials and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The mayor left for Ghana on Saturday, where she attended the inauguration of the country’s new president, John Mahama. A spokesperson for Bass told the Los Angeles Times she was in “active communication” with officials at home. Bass’s office did not immediately return a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
“I’ve been in constant contact with our fire commander, with county, state, and federal officials,” Bass later said at a press conference on Wednesday evening.
“I took the fastest route back, which included being on a military plane which facilitated our communications. So I was able to be on the phone the entire time of the flight. We are fighting for you and everyone in Los Angeles.”
But Rick Caruso, another billionaire who lost to Bass in the 2022 Los Angeles mayoral election, also criticized the city government for problems with the fire hydrants, as well as Bass in particular for her absence.
“There’s no water in the Palisades. There’s no water coming out of the fire hydrants,” Caruso told FOX 11 in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, laying the blame on the city government, not the fire department. “And I’m going to be very honest—we’ve got a mayor that’s out of the country, and we’ve got a city that’s burning, and there’s no resources to put out fires.”
Caruso, a property developer who owns the Palisades Village mall, said that images from the neighborhood hit hardest by the fire resembled those from a “third world country.” He also criticized the city for failing to “mitigate the damage” in the city—including removing brush and keeping water reservoirs full.
Bass brushed off Caruso’s criticism on Wednesday night. “This is a time for vigilance and action, not speculation. This is a time for Angelenos to come together, united, to protect themselves and their families.”
The mayor blamed the severity of the blazes on weather factors. “What we are seeing is the result of eight months of negligible rain, and winds that have not been seen in LA in at least 14 years. It’s a deadly combination.”
Janisse Quiñones, the CEO of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said that the tanks in Pacific Palisades were full—but were placed under “tremendous demand” as firefighters tried to battle the blazes in the mountainous parts of Pacific Palisades.
“We pushed the system to the extreme,” Quiñones said at a press conference on Wednesday. “Four times the normal demand was seen for 15 hours straight, which lowered our water pressure.”
Quiñones said that Pacific Palisades’ three water tanks depleted over the course of Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, with the last tank running dry around 3:00 a.m.
