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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is facing backlash for her response to mayoral candidate and former reality television star, Spencer Pratt, who has been attacking L.A. leaders over alleged mismanagement during the deadly Palisades fire.
Bass accused Pratt of “exploiting” the tragedy, which he faced personally, to score political points. Pratt, however, pushed back and said he won community awards for his support of the Palisades community during the tragedy that resulted in both his and his families’ homes being burnt down. He said he also knew people who burned alive across the street from his childhood home.
“Honestly, before this, I had never heard of Spencer Pratt,” Bass told MeidasTouch as the former reality star’s anti-Bass ads about her mismanagement during the Palisades began gaining traction online. “The thing I am concerned and feel about him is that I feel like he’s exploiting the grief of people in the Palisades and I just think that’s just reprehensible. That’s the main thing and I think he is about his own celebrity — he’s famous now again.”
The questioner during the interview agreed with Bass throughout the talk, but did concede that the fires were something “top of mind” for California voters. Still, Bass was lauded by the questioner for her experience working in public office during such a major disaster, a tenure Pratt is targeting.
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Hotels in Los Angeles, California are struggling, a new report from industry researchers claimed in a report published April 8. (Getty )
“For a longtime politician, I am godsmacked by Karen Bass’ absolute tone deafness in attacking a survivor of the Palisades fire in this way,” Roxanne Hoge, Chairwoman of the L.A. Republican Party, told Digital.
“All of Los Angeles is grieving the loss of our once-beautiful and prosperous City under Karen Bass’s and Nithya Raman’s leadership the last 4 years. To accuse Spencer Pratt — who lives in his burned out lot in a trailer — of ‘exploiting grief’ is a new low,” Elizabeth Barcohana, an attorney and political strategist in Los Angeles, added. “It is only thanks to Pratt that we know why Bass was unprepared for the Palisades fire, why Newsom chose to save plants instead of the people who burned alive that day, how the FireAid money disappeared into local NGO coffers instead of going to victims, and what our taxpayer funding that is supposed to be used to reduce homelessness is actually being spent on.”
“Mayor Bass calling Spencer Pratt’s campaign ‘reprehensible’ is the kind of tone-deaf political malpractice that explains exactly why Los Angeles is in crisis. Spencer Pratt lost his home. His parents lost their home. He watched his city burn while his mayor was on a plane to Ghana. That’s not exploitation, that’s lived experience, and it’s the most legitimate credential anyone could bring to this race,” former Trump campaign adviser Janiyah Thomas also told Digital. “Mayor Bass had the audacity to say she’d never heard of Spencer Pratt, but Angelenos have never forgotten that she cut the fire department’s budget and was absent when their homes were turning to ash.”
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Meanwhile, Bass said during the MeidasTouch interview that her experience leading the city’s response during the deadly Palisades fire, in addition to her experience at the federal level in Congress, was exactly why she was a better candidate than Pratt, adding he could use a civics class to understand how government works.
But Bass faced heavy criticism during the fire for being absent, including taking a trip to Ghana as a historic windstorm swept the area ahead of the blaze, for not deploying proper pre-fire resources and enacting around $17.6 million cuts to the city’s fire department ahead of the tragedy.
Bass appeared to blame the fires and their destruction on climate change during the interview, while arguing her experience serving in public office during the disaster is why she should be reelected. Bass said Pratt would benefit from taking a civics class to understand government better.
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“These fires, it was the worst natural disaster that we experienced in our city — at the root of it, you know, we have to get adjusted to — just like everybody else in the nation — to different weather experiences that we’re not used to because of climate change,” Bass added during the discussion about Pratt and his attacks on her record. “We don’t know hurricanes — I’m born and raised in Los Angeles — to have hurricane-strength winds and actually no rain is odd anywhere but especially Los Angeles.”
Bass’ office referred Digital to the mayor’s campaign team, but they did not provide any response in time for publication.
A firefighter battles the Palisades Fire while it burns homes at Pacific Coast Highway amid a powerful windstorm on January 8, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Apu Gomes/Getty Images)
“I’m not sure if Karen Bass forgot she let my house burn down and my parents house burn down and I had actual neighbors burn alive across the street from my childhood home,” Pratt responded on ‘ “The Will Cain Show” when asked about Bass’ criticism of him. “The only grief is my grief, my community’s grief that I initially started this fight on behalf of.”
“It’s the most insane, psycho, diabolical thing I’ve heard in a minute – but it’s not shocking,” Pratt added.
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“How the hell is Spencer Pratt ‘exploiting grief’?” Meghan McCain, daughter of the late John McCain, questioned in a post on X about Bass’ response. “He, his wife, children and parents lost their homes and everything in it in a fire because of Karen Bass and her failed policies.”
“Mayor Bass is in damage control. Bass calling this ‘exploitation’ tells you that she wants sympathy for herself and silence from the actual victims of the fires,” Corrin Rankin, California Republican Party Chairwoman, told Digital. “Californians are tired of Democratic politicians who lack accountability and attack critics. When people lose everything, they have every right to demand answers from the people in charge that failed them.”
