Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) — who was in Ghana, Africa, on Tuesday as Santa Ana winds fueled wildfires across the area — is expected to return to the city by noon, officials said in a morning press conference.
Bass was in Dallas, Texas, at the time of the press conference making her way back to Los Angeles. The city is currently battling five wildfires, including three major fires that have devoured thousands of acres, destroyed more than 1,000 structures, and left two people dead, according to officials.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) used an emergency press conference Tuesday to thank Bass for her leadership “in absentia” during the wildfire crisis enveloping the state.
“Thank you again to all of the folks behind me in the outstanding leadership of all the elected officials as well. And forgive me one point I’d be remiss — thank you to Mayor Bass who was on the phone immediately this morning… uh… making sure even in absentia that she’s here… uh… organizing everything she can to make sure we’re successful as well,” he said.
As Breitbart News reported, Bass spent Tuesday in Africa as part of a taxpayer-funded delegation attending the inauguration of John Dramani Mahama as Ghana’s president.
CNS News reported that Shalanda D. Young, the director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, headed the delegation to Accra, Ghana’s capital.
It also consisted of Virginia E. Palmer, the U.S. ambassador to Ghana, and Frances Z. Brown, special assistant to the president and the National Security Council’s senior director for African affairs, alongside Bass.
Bass, a lifelong Democrat elected in 2022, has been facing backlash for cutting nearly $20 million from the city’s budget for fire services for the current fiscal year.
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