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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.
SPENCER PRATT ANNOUNCES LA MAYOR RUN ON ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF PALISADES FIRE THAT DESTROYED HIS HOME
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 Fox News 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,