Spencer Pratt, Republican Los Angeles mayoral candidate, blasted the city’s current mayor, Karen Bass, for her response to the city’s January 2025 wildfires in the candidates’ first debate on Wednesday.
“I blame this person for burning my house and my parents’ house and my town and all my neighbors’ town,” Pratt said, referring to Bass.
Pratt, a former reality TV cast member who starred on the hit MTV series The Hills, launched his campaign primarily based on his disappointment with current Los Angeles leadership over how they handled the wildfires that burned in Southern California early last year. His mayoral bid has picked up traction recently after an AI-generated campaign video went viral. The video depicted him as Batman “saving” the city from prominent California Democrats, such as Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA).
Wednesday night’s debate between Pratt, Bass, and City Councilwoman Nithya Raman started contentious, with Pratt calling Bass an “incredible liar” as they discussed her administration’s response to the wildfires. As part of his argument, Pratt ripped Bass over reports that her administration drained reservoirs in the heart of where LA’s firefighters were working, saying, “As mayor, I will never drain the reservoirs that we need for wildfire protection.”
“Without those two reservoirs filled with 117 million gallons and 5 million gallons, these firefighters had to fly all the way to Malibu and Encino to get water. So that, to me, is the most dangerous thing that this mayor put us up against,” Pratt said.
Bass fired back and said Pratt was “saying several things that are completely inaccurate.”
“There was one reservoir that was out of commission. He is correct: A million years ago, it was for wildfires, but over the last 30, 40 years, it’s been for drinking water,” Bass said.
The two also went back and forth debating the wind speeds reached in the Pacific Palisades during the fires, prompting Pratt to say, “She’s an incredible liar. Everyone on their phones, Google it.”
In addition to the wildfire response, the three candidates discussed topics such as immigration, the city’s high cost of living, the decline of Hollywood, and homelessness. Bass apologized for being out of the country during the wildfires and opted to highlight what she sees as the successes of her administration in building affordable housing to address the homelessness crisis.
“I think that I deserve a second term, and I’m going to fight for that because we have made significant progress in a variety of areas. For example, homelessness was going up year after year, and under my watch, it is the first time we’ve had a decrease in street homelessness. While it went up in the country 18%, it came down in Los Angeles 17.5%,” Bass said.
Raman also blamed Bass’s administration for the direction Los Angeles is headed. She referred to the mayor multiple times as “the CEO” of the city.
“If you are satisfied with the status quo, then I’ve got great news for you. The incumbent is on the ballot,” Raman said. “What I’m here to say is that we need more urgency to respond to the issues right now. We need real plans. We need real efforts to make sure that we’re keeping businesses here, that we’re keeping workers here, that we’re keeping residents in downtown LA.”
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The latest Los Angeles Times-University of California poll from early March had Bass in the lead with 25% of support, Raman with 17%, and Pratt with 14%.
The primary in the race, to determine which two candidates head to the Nov. 3 general election, will be held on June 2.