Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass condemned Vice President JD Vance’s “insulting” visit to her city, claiming he was making statements on the city that are “not happening.”
Vance visited the city on Friday to speak with law enforcement officers and Marines sent to the state, marking the vice president’s first visit to the city after riots began earlier this month. During his visit, Vance previewed a “simple proposal” from President Donald Trump, being that federal law enforcement would only be sent to cities and towns where “violent rioters” are allowed to “burn great American cities to the ground.”
Bass, however, accused Vance of visiting the city for a fundraiser, deeming his press conference “a photo-op.” She also dished criticism towards the vice president for misnaming Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) as “Jose Padilla.”
“But he comes in, he makes all of these statements about what is not happening in LA at all and then insults the senator that he serves with now as president of the Senate,” Bass said on MSNBC’s The Weekend. “So it was just disrespectful, but it was just tough listening to him saying what is going on in our city, and it being 100% lies.”
The mayor added that Los Angeles consists of 500 square miles, and that the city’s “problem” took place in one square miles, which she said was approximately “four blocks.” She proceeded to compare the riots to the aftermath of a sporting event, acknowledging that there was “vandalism for a couple days” but that it was “completely under control” by local law enforcement.
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Padilla has fired back at Vance for incorrectly addressing him, saying on Saturday, “He knows my name” and that it shows “how petty and unserious this administration is.”
The California senator went viral for interrupting a press conference Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was hosting. Vance equated Padilla’s actions as “political theater.” He also accused Democrats of wanting to be “captured on camera doing something,” and suggested that people “ought to laugh them out of the building” over this.