Text messages reveal communication between LA mayor in Ghana and staffers in US as deadly wildfires ravaged Southern California
Frantic text messages reveal the communication between U.S.-based staffers and Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass who was in Ghana as wildfires began to tear through Southern California.
The mayor, who was heavily criticized at the time from both sides of the political spectrum, was blighted by technical problems while trying to communicate with her team on the other side of the world, the messages obtained by ABC7 Eyewitness News show.
The mayor was informed of the severity of the wildfires at 11:48 a.m. PT on January 7, while she was seven hours ahead in the African nation. The Palisades fire started on January 7 and tore through nearly 24,000 acres.
'On phone with Chief Crowley now. 2 significant fires in the city now. She will call you mayor,' a message from her deputy chief of staff Celine Cordero said.
After updating Bass that evacuations were taking place as winds hit 40mph, the mayor held a video call with staff late afternoon in Los Angeles and 11:23 p.m. in Ghana.
'I am listening don't know why you can't tell me,' she said, before correcting herself to 'Hear me!'
Her team replied saying that they still couldn't hear the mayor.
California Sen. Adam Schiff text Bass hours later offering support. 'The fires are just awful. Please let me know whatever I can do to help,' Schiff messaged.
'Thanks so much I'm actually in the air headed home from Ghana...I know disaster aid will be needed...I land in the AM and would like to be in touch by late afternoon after I've had a chance to see what is happening,' Bass replied.
After the news outlet got hold of the messages, the mayor said she was 'glad' they were in the public domain. 'I am glad that they're now out there, and I hope that people can see exactly what I was doing,' Bass said at a press conference this week.
Bass initially told the outlet that her messages were set to auto-delete when they originally requested them in the days following the outbreak of the fires.
The outlet noted that public records, including texts from public officials, should be kept for at least two years, according to Los Angeles Administrative Code.
Bass, a former physician and congresswoman, was hit with heavy criticism after it emerged she was on a different continent when the fires broke out earlier this year.
She was selected by former President Joe Biden as one of his four-member presidential delegation to attend the inauguration of Ghana's incoming president, John Dramani Mahama.
Elon Musk called her 'utterly incompetent' and Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley told Fox 11 Los Angeles that the city had failed them after recent cuts to the department's budget.
Despite being away on diplomatic duties, Bass was consistently posting updates on social media about fire, evacuation orders and emergency shelters.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
'Arrest me': California's governor unfazed by threats of arrest from Trump administration official
LOS ANGELES — California Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed back against threats of arrest by Trump administration officials, remaining defiant as he oversees clashes between law enforcement agents and protesters in response to immigration raids across Los Angeles while also managing an ongoing power struggle with the federal government. Trump's "border czar," Tom Homan, warned Saturday that immigration operations and the presence of federal personnel would continue in the city despite criticism from Democratic leaders who've warned it could further escalate protests. He threatened arrest for anyone who obstructs the immigration enforcement effort, including Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass — though he acknowledged that neither yet had "crossed the line." 'I'll say about anybody,' Homan said. 'You cross that line, it's a felony to knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien. It's a felony to impede law enforcement doing their job.' In an interview for MSNBC with NBC News' Jacob Soboroff, Newsom called Homan's bluff, urging him to "just get it over with" and move ahead with the arrest. 'He's a tough guy. Why doesn't he do that? He knows where to find me,' Newsom said. 'That kind of bloviating is exhausting. So, Tom, arrest me. Let's go." Bass, meanwhile, dismissed Homan's warning as unnecessary, emphasizing Sunday that while she opposed the decision to deploy National Guard troops, she has no interest in brawling with the federal government. 'He had absolutely positively no reason to even say that,' Bass said. 'I spoke to him last night. He understands that I am the mayor of the city; the last thing in the world I'm going to do is get into a brawl with the federal government. So that just made no sense. There was no reason for that comment.' Trump doubled down on Homan's warning Sunday, telling reporters that 'officials who stand in the way of law and order" will "face judges." But Newsom said Sunday that Trump hadn't expressed any concern about his ability to manage the growing protest in Los Angeles or the prospect of federalizing National Guard troops during a phone call after protests started Friday. "We talked for almost 20 minutes, and he barely — this issue never came up," Newsom said. "We had a very decent conversation." Newsom and Bass have intensely criticized Trump's decision to authorize the deployment of at least 2,000 National Guard troops in response to the protests, arguing they would only inflame tensions in the city already heightened by the large-scale immigration operations. In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Newsom requested that Trump rescind his order federalizing the troops in Los Angeles County "and return them to my command." "In dynamic and fluid situations such as the one in Los Angeles, State and local authorities are the most appropriate ones to evaluate the need for resources and safeguard life and property," Newsom said in the letter. Threats by the administration to arrest elected officials have been a hallmark of Trump's second term, particularly after the high-profile arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka outside an ICE detention facility in New Jersey. The charges were dropped, though the Justice Department charged another elected official with Baraka, Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver, with two counts of assaulting, resisting and impeding law enforcement officials in connection with the incident. This article was originally published on
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Trump's new travel ban takes effect as tensions escalate over immigration enforcement
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's new ban on travel to the U.S. by citizens from 12 mainly African and Middle Eastern countries took effect Monday amid rising tension over the president's escalating campaign of immigration enforcement. The new proclamation, which Trump signed last week, applies to citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. It also imposes heightened restrictions on people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela who are outside the U.S. and don't hold a valid visa. The new ban does not revoke visas previously issued to people from countries on the list, according to guidance issued Friday to all U.S. diplomatic missions. However, unless an applicant meets narrow criteria for an exemption to the ban, his or her application will be rejected starting Monday. Travelers with previously issued visas should still be able to enter the U.S. even after the ban takes effect. While many of the listed countries send few people to the United States, Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela had been major sources of immigration in recent years. Haitian-American Elvanise Louis-Juste, who was at the airport Sunday in Newark, New Jersey, awaiting a flight to her home state of Florida, said many Haitians wanting to come to the U.S. are simply seeking to escape violence and unrest. Haitians continue to flee poverty and hunger while police and a U.N.-backed mission fight a surge in gang violence, with armed men controlling at least 85% of its capital, Port-au-Prince. 'I have family in Haiti, so it's pretty upsetting to see and hear,' Louis-Juste, 23, said of the travel ban. 'I don't think it's a good thing. I think it's very upsetting.' Many immigration experts say the new ban is designed to beat court challenges by focusing on the visa application process and appears more carefully crafted than a hastily written executive order during Trump's first term that denied entry to citizens of mainly Muslim countries. Trump said this time that some countries had 'deficient' screening for passports and other public documents or have historically refused to take back their own citizens. He relied extensively on an annual Homeland Security report of people who remain in the U.S. after their visas expired. Measuring overstay rates has challenged experts for decades, but the government has made a limited attempt annually since 2016. Trump's proclamation cites overstay rates for eight of the 12 banned countries. Trump also tied the new ban to a terrorist attack in Boulder, Colorado, saying it underscored the dangers posed by some visitors who overstay visas. U.S. officials say the man charged in the attack overstayed a tourist visa. He is from Egypt, a country that is not on Trump's restricted list. The ban was quickly denounced by groups that provide aid and resettlement help to refugees. 'This policy is not about national security — it is about sowing division and vilifying communities that are seeking safety and opportunity in the United States,' said Abby Maxman, president of Oxfam America, a nonprofit international relief organization. The inclusion of Afghanistan angered some supporters who have worked to resettle its people. The ban does make exceptions for Afghans on Special Immigrant Visas, generally people who worked most closely with the U.S. government during the two-decade-long war there. Afghanistan had been one of the largest sources of resettled refugees, with about 14,000 arrivals in a 12-month period through September 2024. Trump suspended refugee resettlement his first day in office.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Posse Comitatus Act at center of Trump-Newsom National Guard dispute in LA
President Donald Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom are clashing over the deployment of the National Guard amid ongoing Los Angeles riots with different interpretations of the 1878 law that governs the use of the military to enforce the law domestically. The Posse Comitatus Act was signed into law by President Rutherford B. Hayes amid concerns that the military had too much sway over civilian affairs during Reconstruction. It generally bars the use of the U.S. military for civilian law enforcement inside the country, but there are key exceptions. Trump deployed the National Guard early Sunday, but so far, those troops have not participated in any direct law enforcement. Johnson Says Hegseth Possibly Sending Marines To Anti-ice Riots Not Heavy-handed: 'Deterring Effect' Trump sent in the National Guard after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were reportedly attacked on the streets of L.A. as they conducted raids to catch and deport illegal immigrants. Seeing that neither Newsom nor L.A. Mayor Karen Bass were moving aggressively enough to stop the attacks, Trump signed a presidential memorandum to deploy 2,000 National Guard troops to "address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester," the White House said in a statement. Newsom objected immediately even as the riots spiraled. "I have formally requested the Trump Administration rescind their unlawful deployment of troops in Los Angeles county and return them to my command," Newsom wrote on X on Sunday alongside his letter to President Trump. "We didn't have a problem until Trump got involved. This is a serious breach of state sovereignty – inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they're actually needed." Read On The Fox News App In addition to the Guard, the Pentagon said Sunday night it stands ready to send in 500 active-duty Marines. If the military is to take an active role in suppressing the riots, the 147-year-old law will take center stage. Exceptions to the Posse Comitatus Act that allow the military to enforce the law against U.S. citizens include congressional decree, if an insurrection has been declared under the Insurrection Act, or when state governments prove unable or unwilling to impose law and article source: Posse Comitatus Act at center of Trump-Newsom National Guard dispute in LA
