Watch: Reporter Pushes Back After LA Mayor Claims She ‘Wasn’t Aware Of’ Fire Warnings

California has long been home to some of the most active wildfires in the nation, but conditions have gotten progressively worse over the course of the past several years.

Despite mounting evidence that the state, and the Los Angeles area in particular, were at elevated risk, critics say elected leaders failed to address the root problems in time to prevent the massive wildfires that scorched a wide swath of the region earlier this year.

Now, Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass seems to attempting to distance herself from responsibility.

But as Breitbart reported, one local news reporter refused to let her off the hook when she claimed she “wasn’t aware of” certain warnings prior to the outbreak of the wildfires:

Host Elex Michaelson then asked, “But what do you mean there were warnings you weren’t aware of? Because I know we were talking about it on the news. A lot of people were talking about the problems, warning that this was going to be a huge deal.”

Bass responded, “So, when I talked about it with the fire chief, what she said is is that we have warnings of Santa Ana winds a lot, but predicting this — and you saw, from the city, from the county, that level of preparation really didn’t happen. So, it didn’t reach that level, to me, to say, something terrible could happen and maybe you shouldn’t have gone on the trip.”

Michaelson then asked, “Why didn’t that happen?”

Bass responded, “I don’t know. I think that that’s one of the things we need to look at.”

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Bass has received a significant share of the public opprobrium in the wake of the disaster:

Fire trucks and ambulances in Los Angeles sat broken and unused because Mayor Karen Bass cut LAFD’s budget.

The Fire Chief warned weeks before the Palisades Fire that budget reduction would impact the department’s ability to respond to large scale emergencies.

Fire Mayor Bass! pic.twitter.com/or3rVCNEES

— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) February 9, 2025

Karen Bass cut the fire department, didn’t manage fire hydrants, left for Ghana, and stared in silence when asked questions — but I’m sure it’s all because she’s a black woman! pic.twitter.com/CTUmUmxXs3

— Vince Dao (@VinceDaoTV) January 10, 2025

Hey, did Karen Bass @MayorOfLA ever announce who caused that massive 10 Freeway fire?

She promised "full accountability"!

Funny how "full accountability" suddenly disappears when it threatens the political narrative https://t.co/ax4T9ohwqs

— KarenBassProgressReport (@KBassProgReport) February 4, 2025

Bass did recently acknowledge that it was a mistake for her to go off on an African junket as fire conditions became increasingly severe in her own city.

As Fox News reported:

Los Angeles’ Democratic Mayor Karen Bass Thursday conceded her Africa trip was “absolutely” a mistake and that she was working to regain the public’s trust after facing backlash for her botched response to the raging fires in her city last month.

“Absolutely it is, and I think that I have to demonstrate that every day by showing what we’re doing, what is working, what are the challenges,” Bass told NBC Los Angeles when asked if she’s trying to “regain confidence.”

The remarks come as Los Angeles faces rainstorms this week, which could create “debris flows” in areas where the fires burned, a landslide risk for what’s left of the disaster that tore through in separate fires in the region. There have already been mudslides in some scarred areas, according to Fox Weather.

Here’s a clip of the recent interview along with the interviewer’s social media commentary:

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass says she "wasn't aware of warnings" before leaving for Ghana .

Timeline:
Jan. 3: National Weather Service puts out a fire weather warning
Jan. 4: Mayor Bass leaves for Ghana
Jan. 6: "Particularly Dangerous Situation" warning issued
Jan. 7: Palisades… pic.twitter.com/fVq3WRoBTy

— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) February 19, 2025