The mayor of Los Angeles is facing intense backlash as internet critics question her glaring absence as raging infernos have killed at least five people and forced tens of thousands to evacuate.
Several fires scorched more than 25,000 acres late Wednesday and destroyed more than 1,000 buildings.
Karen Bass, a six-term congresswoman who became the first woman elected as mayor of Los Angeles in 2022 when she defeated billionaire developer Rick Caruso, was thousands of miles away on Tuesday as the wind-swept fires ignited.
Bass flew to Ghana on Saturday to celebrate the inauguration of its new president. As The Los Angeles Times noted, her departure coincided with the National Weather Service escalating warnings about the coming windstorm.
Despite arriving in Los Angeles on Wednesday, her early absence was glaring as state and local officials took stock of the carnage— and drew fierce criticism.
"Of course, you don’t go,” Caruso told Politico of her trip. “That’s not leadership, that’s abandoning your post.”
“Is it as bad as Ted Cruz going to Cancun? No. But it could be an indelible dent in her image,” an anonymous veteran Democratic consultant in Los Angeles told the outlet.
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“Inexplicable decision to not come back earlier,” former Obama staffer and Pod Save America host Tommy Vietor wrote on X.
"LA Mayor Karen Bass has finally returned from a trip to Ghana, but it's concerning she went at all - & didn't return sooner - given forecasts of severe fire danger. It's a surprising concept, but local leaders are elected to lead locally," wrote San Francisco Chronicle columnist Emily Hoeven.
Bass addressed the criticism on Wednesday and urged her constituents to avoid politicizing the devastation, according to Politico.
“This is going to be an effort of all of us coming together, and we have to resist any effort to pull us apart,” she said, adding that she was on the phone coordinating with officials "every hour" during her flights back, including on a military plane.
“So although I was not physically here, I was in contact with many of the individuals that are standing here throughout the entire time,” she said. “When my flight landed, I immediately went to the fire zone and saw what happened in Pacific Palisades.”