All posts tagged "karen bass"

Big-name mayor warned against repeating major Trump mistake by boosting MAGA favorite

An activist was sounding the alarm over the Los Angeles mayoral race and how incumbent Mayor Karen Bass could be repeating a strategy for MAGA-approved former reality TV star Spencer Pratt — a similar move that ended up costing Hillary Clinton the election against Donald Trump.

Adam Conover, a comedian known for both his jokes and political commentary, offered his views of the upcoming election in Los Angeles and why the stakes were so high.

"There's something really dangerous happening in the LA mayor's race and a lot more people need to be talking about it," Conover said. "So you guys are familiar with how Hillary Clinton boosted Donald Trump's candidacy in 2016 in the primary because she thought it would help her win the general, right? We all know how that turned out. Well Karen Bass is doing the same thing in Los Angeles this year."

Bass, whose campaign has pitted her against current Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Rahman, has viewed Rahman as a top contender, Conover explained.

"Karen is catastrophically unpopular," he added. "She has a 24 percent approval rating because of her mismanagement of the fires and the city budget. And so she has drawn a strong progressive challenger named Nithya Rahman, who has been described in the press as the next Zohran Mamdani and who's running on a platform of housing affordability. So since Karen detects that she might lose, she has started promoting the candidacy of Spencer Pratt, a right-wing MAGA Republican who wants to let ICE invade the city, he vacations with Alex Jones, and he was literally inspired to run by watching Donald Trump on television."

Bass' decision could ultimately put Pratt in a power position, considering that Los Angeles has a nonpartisan primary system, and that on her website she has even called the former "Hills" star a "strong contender for the second spot," Conover argued. He said the maneuver could work in the short-term to boost Pratt's recognition but called it "risky," citing the current mayor's unpopularity among voters.

"All the Republicans and Democrats run against each other and then the top two finishers go to the general election in November," he said. "And in a normal year, LA is so blue that that means that a centrist Democrat usually goes up against a progressive Democrat. Unless the centrist Democrat can get a right-winger to win that second spot. And so that is what the Bass campaign is doing."

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'Not a real riot?' Dr. Phil trashes media over 'manufactured' LA coverage

TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw, who came to prominence after being promoted by Oprah Winfrey, trashed the media's response to unrest in Los Angeles on his podcast, "The Real Story With Dr. Phil."

"Your eyes don't deceive you, but the media does," McGraw said over video of burning cars.

McGraw first took aim at CNN's Dana Bash, who "compares this madness to what happened in L.A. in 1992."

On video, Bash said, "What happened in 1992 is so different from what we're seeing now. I mean, that was a real riot."

"Guess this isn't a real riot," McGraw said, pausing for effect.

He then moved on to MSNBC and an interview the network did with Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), "a Democrat, who calls this, quote, 'a manufactured crisis.' What does that even mean?" McGraw asked. "This crisis isn't manufactured; MSNBC's news coverage is manufactured. That's what's manufactured."

While playing the clip of Chu calling the violent protesters "outliers," McGraw interjected, "She apparently had no idea that on her split screen were burning cars set ablaze by 'outliers.' So, while she's talking, well, it just didn't seem to go with her rhetoric at the time."

McGraw then castigated an MSNBC reporter for saying the protesters were settling into a "celebratory atmosphere."

"The third one is the charm for MSNBC," McGraw said, playing a clip of a reporter claiming, "These are peaceful people that want to get their message across. They've got signs, they're out with families in some places."

"Great place to take kids! I don't think so," McGraw quipped while chuckling in disbelief.

McGraw then read through headlines from outlets like The L.A. Times that said, "Trump wants L.A. to set itself on fire. Let's rebel smarter."

"Well, little too late to rebel smarter. L.A. is already on fire," McGraw said. "And, for what reason?"

He then recounted the bios of some of the "charmers" recently arrested by ICE who had criminal records, insinuating that the Los Angelenos were upset that criminals were being deported.

"Look, this was not a witch hunt to round up 'Abuela Maria,'" McGraw said. "It's law enforcement getting criminals off the street. So, what does the left do? Encourages everyone to become criminals by blocking freeways, setting fires, throwing rocks, destroying city property, and attacking federal agents."

Mayor Karen Bass refuted McGraw's claims that the Trump administration was only targeting criminals.

"When you raid Home Depots and workplaces, when you tear parents and children apart, and when you deploy troops to our streets, you’re not trying to keep anyone safe – you’re trying to cause fear and panic. These raids must stop," Bass said.

Watch the video below via "The Real Story" podcast.

'Rhetoric of insurrection!' Stephen Miller doubles down in feud with LA mayor

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller doubled down Wednesday on his assertion that an "insurrection" is gripping Los Angeles by those who wish to thwart President Donald Trump's deportation policies.

Miller reposted a video of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass calling for ICE's deportation raids to stop "now."

"This is the rhetoric of insurrection," Miller posted Wednesday. "She’s saying: no peace until federal law enforcement withdraws from the city. No peace until all the illegal invaders are allowed to remain."

On Tuesday, as Trump mulled whether to invoke the Insurrection Act on the city, Miller used the inflammatory word again to describe Bass's comments.

Bass had said, "We need to stop the raids. This should not be happening in our city. It is not warranted and...the only thing it does is contribute to chaos. This was chaos that was started in Washington, D.C. On Thursday, the city was peaceful; on Friday, it was not because of the intervention of the federal government."

That sentiment caused Miller to melt down.

"The threat being made here by Mayor Bass is explicit," Miller wrote. "The Mayor of LA is effectively saying the mob violence is caused by the mere presence of ICE in the city and the violence against ICE will not stop unless federal law enforcement is withdrawn from the city. This is the definition of insurrection."

Miller accused Bass of allowing "mobs to target ICE with impunity," while denying "the bedrock constitutional command of one national government."

Bass has not called on Los Angelenos to "target ICE with impunity."

Bass has repeatedly called for calm, saying Tuesday, “The violence and the damage is unacceptable. It is not going to be tolerated, and individuals will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

MAGA lined up to cheer Miller on.

@warclandestine wrote on social media, "They are obstructing the duly elected POTUS from enforcing the law and enacting the will of The People. And they are encouraging others to obstruct and riot. Arrest them."

@Biblesscholars wrote, "She is leading the riots. She needs to be arrested," while @IntrepidNewsUS posted, "Bass needs to be prosecuted. Come on @DHSgov, let’s make newsomes [sic] dream come true and hold these people accountable for their lawlessness."

'Insurrection!' Stephen Miller melts down at LA mayor after 'threat'

Top White House aide Stephen Miller paved the way for President Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act on Tuesday in a social media meltdown over video of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass saying the raids on undocumented migrants needed to stop.

In a video he shared on X, Mayor Bass asserted, "We need to stop the raids. This should not be happening in our city. It is not warranted and...the only thing it does is contribute to chaos. This was chaos that was started in Washington, D.C. On Thursday, the city was peaceful; on Friday it was not because of the intervention of the federal government."

That seemed to be enough ammunition for Miller to make his case for an "insurrection" that needed to be neutralized.

"LA and CA leadership demand the right to illegally import unlimited foreigners into America, to control America’s entire immigration policy by fiat — and if they are not so permitted they will allow mobs to target ICE with impunity. Los Angeles and California are demanding the nullification of the election results, of federal law, of national sovereignty, and of the bedrock constitutional command of one national government."

Bass has not called on Los Angelenos to "target ICE with impunity."

“The violence and the damage is unacceptable,” Bass said Tuesday. “It is not going to be tolerated, and individuals will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

In a follow-up post, Miller retweeted another video of Bass that he claimed showed her siding "with the insurrection mob" for telling "ICE to abandon the city."

'Start arresting!' Bannon calls for locking up officials 'stirring the pot'

MAGA pontificator Steve Bannon claimed that it's time to ignore claims of "authoritarianism" and start locking up government officials who are stoking "civil unrest" in the United States, according to an article in The Spectator.

Bannon told editor Freddy Gray that the left was "calling for [unrest] nationwide," and that "we’re in for another of summer of riots."

“They just kicked it off,” Bannon said of the unrest in Los Angeles.

“We need to start arresting government officials, including the Mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, who’s stirring this pot up," Bannon said, even if it means suspending habeas corpus.

“If Gavin Newsom is saying, ‘Hey, come on, arrest me.’ Hey, well, if he gets in the way of federal officials trying to sort this mess out, he should be arrested,” Bannon said.

Gray wrote, "Bannon is on something of a roll at the moment, having just, in his words 'taken out' Elon Musk from the Trump administration."

Bannon has long been at odds with Musk, whom he calls a "dangerous narcissist” and an "illegal alien" who's controlled by the Chinese Communist Party and needs to be deported back to South Africa.

Further, Bannon claimed that the Trump administration will be using "its legal powers to bust up the monopolistic power of Big Tech."

“We’re going to break up Facebook," Bannon said. "We’re going to break up Google. We’re going to break up Amazon. We’re going to break… I think hopefully we get to eventually break up Walmart. You’ve got too much concentration of private power. It’s obvious it’s anti-populist. It’s anti-economic nationalist."

Bannon continued, "The tech bros at their core are soft. It’s like the elites in England. It’s like the elites know England went from a country that ran the world. You know why? Because it generated people that had character values and were tough. You’re not tough anymore. You’re a bunch of f------ p------. Just like the tech bros. They lived a soft life. They’ve never had to make hard decisions. They’ve never had any kind of real challenges in their life, hard challenges. And that’s where they’re soft. And the soft will never beat the hard.”

Read The Spectator article here.

'Basically an arsonist': CNN's Dana Bash ridicules Trump over demand for thanks

CNN's Dana Bash ridiculed President Donald Trump over a Truth Social post demanding L.A. officials thank him for sending in National Guard troops to quell protests.

"I know that...this is a promise that he gave on the campaign trail to do whatever he could to deport illegal immigrants," Bash said on Monday's Inside Politics. "But what he just posted is, is basically, an arsonist saying, 'You better call the fire department because they've got to come in fast to get the flames out. I mean, that seems like what's going on."

Trump sent the post Bash referred to on Monday afternoon.

"We made a great decision in sending the National Guard to deal with the violent, instigated riots in California," Trump wrote. "If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated. The very incompetent 'Governor,' Gavin Newscum, and 'Mayor,' Karen Bass, should be saying, 'THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP, YOU ARE SO WONDERFUL. WE WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT YOU, SIR.' Instead, they choose to lie to the People of California and America by saying that we weren’t needed, and that these are 'peaceful protests.' Just one look at the pictures and videos of the Violence and Destruction tells you all you have to know. We will always do what is needed to keep our Citizens SAFE, so we can, together, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Earlier in the show, panelist Manu Raju commented on Trump's claim that "Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated."

"Now, I'm not quite sure if that's exactly the case of what people are saying on the ground here," Raju said, "but I mean, look — sending in the National Guard is just an extraordinary step for the federal government to do."

Multiple officials, including California's governor and L.A.' mayor, have slammed Trump for ordering in the National Guard against their wishes. They said it poured gasoline on the protests.

Watch the clip via CNN here.

'Pandemonium': LA mayor comes out swinging at Trump

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) put the blame for the unrest in her city firmly on the Trump administration during an interview with CNN on Monday.

"If you dial back time and go to Friday, if immigration raids had not happened here, we would not have the disorder that went on last night," Bass said. "I will tell you that it is peaceful now, but we do not know where and when the next raids will be. That is the concern because people in this city have a rapid response network; if they see ICE, they go out and they protest. And so it's just a recipe for pandemonium that is completely unnecessary."

Bass said that Trump violated California's "state power and state sovereignty" by defying Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and sending in the National Guard without his consent.

Newsom posted to social media Monday, "This is exactly what Donald Trump wanted. He flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalize the National Guard. The order he signed doesn’t just apply to CA. It will allow him to go into ANY STATE and do the same thing. We’re suing him."

Bass said that President Trump federalized the national guard over an unruly protest that involved about 100 people.

"There wasn't a reason for this — that is the concern," Bass said. "And if there was, the way it happens traditionally is, is that requests are made on the local level of the governor to send National Guard troops. No request came from the city of Los Angeles. What has happened now is an entirely different situation."

Bass argued that the escalation "didn't have to happen."

"You know, we had been told that he was going to go after violent criminals. It wasn't a drug den; it was a Home Depot," Bass said of the ICE raids of day laborers. "It was places where people are working. So what was the point of doing this?"

Watch the clip below via CNN.