Denial's a Heckuva Drug: LA Mayor Karen Bass Makes Insulting Comparison to Violent 2025 Anti-ICE Riots

AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) is running for re-election. A year after the horrific failures of the Palisades and Eaton Fires that raged while she partied in Ghana on the taxpayers' dime, you would think she'd either slink under a rock or take some accountability. 

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Instead, she is making the rounds of D-List Democrat podcasts, like former DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, to reinvent and manufacture a record that doesn't exist. Bass' latest revisionist take: The 2025 L.A. anti-ICE Riots were comparable to rowdy sports fans when the Lakers won the championship. Apparently, flaming Waymos and Mexican flags are now standard at championship parades.

Bass also ranted that the National Guard wasn't needed to quell last summer's unrest, and alleged that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are just modern-day slave patrols.

Bass and Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett (TX-30) obviously use the same comms person.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is pushing back, claiming that anti-ICE protests last year didn't devolve into riots, and likening the vandalism and clashes between protesters and police with the actions of fans after a Los Angeles Lakers championship.

Bass was on the "At Our Table with Jamie Harrison" podcast when she remarked on the federalization of National Guard troops and the deployment of several hundred Marines to the city amid several days of anti-ICE demonstrations. 

While some protesters voiced their anger at ICE lawfully, others set cars, including vehicles belong to the California Highway Patrol and Waymo, on fire and violently fought with police, while elected officials maintained that the demonstrations were peaceful.

"Nothing was going on. OK, we have some protests," Bass told Harrison. "You want to know the protests, in my opinion, equaled a Lakers championship."

"You know what happens after a championship right? A few knuckleheads hang around. They're drunk, they start vandalizing things. There was no riot here."

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This is nothing new. Bass was floating down that river in Egypt back in July, after the National Guard was deployed to quell the chaos from the June anti-ICE protests. A reporter confronted Bass about this, and she flat-out denied at the time that any riots had occurred.

WATCH:

So, Bass is infamous for her revisionist history; this is what communists do. In December, RedState's Bob Hoge reported that Bass recorded a podcast interview and admitted that both sides "botched it," referring to the horrible response to the 2025 Palisades and Eaton fires. But before the podcast aired, Bass's staff rushed to have the truth scrubbed.

Bass continues in her lies and malignant language toward ICE and the agents who choose to serve their country in this way. Later in December, Bass said in a CNN interview that the major reason Hispanics join Border Patrol is because they need the money, blaming it on Trump's economy. It's insulting, but even more insulting is that Bass still holds the title of Mayor of L.A. when she should have resigned or been recalled a year ago.

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Read More: LA Mayor Karen Bass Says CA Officials 'Botched' the Fire Response — Then She Tries to Scrub the Record

Wait, What About Diversity, Karen? LA Mayor Bass Laments Hispanics Signing Up to Work for Border Patrol


The Los Angeles Police Protective League, who are as disgusted with Bass and her lack of leadership as the majority of Angeleans, begged to differ. After all, it is their rank-and-file who suffered the smoke inhalation, physical injuries, and destroyed cars and equipment from those CHIRLA-funded, astroturf protests, while Bass reportedly commanded the police stand down. 

When President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard, Bass took to every camera she could to rant about being invaded and demanded that the National Guard get out of Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents rank-and-file officers with the Los Angeles Police Department, disagreed. 

"We disagree with anyone who characterizes the numerous times these protests turned into riots," the statement from the union's board of directors to Fox News Digital states. "All one has to do is look at the videos of the Waymo vehicles destroyed, the CHP car set on fire, the vandalism of property, looting of businesses and injuries to police officers to call that criminal behavior what it was, a riot." 


Dive Deeper: Taxpayer-Funded Riots: Here's What We Found When We Followed the Money in Los Angeles

Newsom's Nightmare: Interim Report Documenting FireAid Fraud Drops on Eve of Palisades Fire Anniversary


For every one of these attempted reinventions, someone needs to put up the video record that proves Bass is a fraud and a liar. On the one-year anniversary of the deadly fires that destroyed Pacific Palisades and Altadena, Bass is yet again trying to pretend she had nothing to do with the destruction and that she is doing everything she can to help citizens rebuild.

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"One year after the fires, are you surprised that so much of that anger is directed at you?" Haskell asked

"A little, but again, I do understand the anger," Bass responded. "To see all of the construction taking place, that's hopeful, that's inspiring to me. But it's still painful, and I understand grief. So I understand people's emotions, so if they need to focus them on me, you know, whatever, whatever it takes for them to heal and get through this. I don't take it personally."

It's Bass's world, and you're not in it. Angeleans need to make it their personal goal to see that this woman does not get re-elected.

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