Bass, Raman and Pratt square off on Palisades fire, police hiring in bruising mayoral debate
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The three leading candidates for Los Angeles mayor — incumbent Karen Bass and challengers Nithya Raman and Spencer Pratt — traded jabs over the Palisades fire, police hiring and other issues in their first and possibly only televised showdown together.In one of the evening’s most striking moments, Raman accused Bass and Pratt of working together to attack her.She said Pratt and Bass want to finish first and second in the June 2 primary, and then face each other in the Nov.
3 runoff election.“They don’t want to run against me, because my ideas ...are based on real results in my district,” said Raman, who represents a Hollywood Hills district on the City Council.Pratt, a reality TV personality whose home was destroyed in the 2025 Palisades fire, rejected that assertion, saying he holds the mayor responsible for the devastating inferno.“I blame this person for burning my house and my parents’ house down,” he said of Bass.“If I wanted to run against anybody, it would be the council member, who is terrible,” he added, referring to Raman.The one-hour event Wednesday, hosted by NBC4 and Telemundo 52, focused early on on the city’s handling of the disaster, which destroyed thousands of homes and left 12 people dead.Pratt took aim at Bass over the lack of water available during the inferno, with fire hydrants running dry.
He also accused her of failing to give the Fire Department the resources it needed to repair its vehicles.“One thousand firefighters were available ...but there was no engines available for them because of $17 million that [Fire] Chief Crowley had asked the mayor for nine weeks before, and Mayor Karen Bass denied it,” he said.Raman also assailed Bass over the fire, the worst in the city’s history.
She said the mayor is supposed to be the city’s CEO and plan for potential disasters.“It’s the mayor’s role to be prepared and to coordi...