Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass went after President Trump on Tuesday for what she called attacks that are “nonsense.”
During a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Bass’s handling of the wildfires that hit parts of Los Angeles earlier this year.
“I think they’re incompetent, OK, to be honest with you. I think they just don’t know how to go about it. It is so badly run by ‘Newscum’ and by Mayor Bass. Mayor Bass, she was in Africa during the fire,” Trump said.
“She knew the fire was starting to rage, and she decided to take a trip to Africa. These people are just — they’re just bad. You know, you talk about make America great again, they could never make America great again,” he added.
“So what’s your response to that?” CNN’s Erin Burnett asked Bass on “OutFront.”
“Well, other than that it’s nonsense, I mean, we know that the president is not kind when it comes to the truth. So, nothing he said is actually accurate,” Bass responded.
Bass told Burnett that she had been aware Trump mentioned her during Tuesday’s meeting.
“I know that he has an ongoing feud with the governor, but, you know, again, he calls everyone incompetent,” she added. “He’s called all of the mayors from the cities that he’s targeted as incompetent. So, it does leave you wondering how he makes those judgments, but, clearly they’re not based in facts.”
Bass’s comments come amid heightened tension between Democratic leaders across the country and the president in the wake of intense federal law enforcement action in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) recently warned Trump against the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago, after the president suggested the week before that the Prairie State’s largest city could be an upcoming target.
“Earlier today in the Oval Office, Donald Trump looked at the assembled cameras and asked for me personally to say, ‘Mr. President, can you do us the honor of protecting our city?’” Pritzker said Monday at a press conference.
“Instead, I say, ‘Mr. President, do not come to Chicago. You are neither wanted here nor needed here,’” he added.
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