Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is not holding back in her response to J.D. Vance’s brief yet “disrespect[ful]” visit to the city.
Vance paid a visit to the state amid its tensions with the federal government over its striking ICE raids. While only in Los Angeles for a few hours, the Vice President hosted a press conference June 20 where he made several derogatory claims against California Governor Gavin Newsome and Bass. During the event, he also mockingly referred to U.S. Senator Alex Padilla as “Jose Padilla.”
Shortly following his disparaging remarks, Mayor Bass hosted her own press conference slamming his accusations and offensive words toward Padilla. According to NBC4, she denounced Vance for “spewing lies” that could sew even more discord across Los Angeles.
“The vice president of the United States spent three or four hours in L.A. before holding a press conference and spewing lies and utter nonsense in an attempt to provoke division and conflict in our city,” said Bass. “This is consistent with the provocation from Washington that began two weeks ago, when our city was calm and many and millions of Angelenos were going about working and contributing to our city.”
She then called out the elected official for calling Sen. Padilla “Jose,” seemingly using that name due to his support of immigrants. Federal agents removed Padilla from a news conference with the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem a week prior.
“How dare you disrespect our senator? You don’t know his name, but yet you served with him before you were vice president, and you continue to serve with him today, because the last time I checked, the Vice President of the United States is the president of the US Senate,” Bass continued. “You served with him today, and how dare you disrespect him and call him Jose, but I guess he just looked like anybody to you. Well, he’s not just anybody to us. He is our senator.”
Bass then defended the overall peacefulness of the protest. She emphasized how state law enforcement was able to contain the demonstrations to a small sector of the city, noting California’s ability to manage the protesters without the use of the National Guard.
“Even when there was vandalism at its height, you were talking about a couple of hundred people who were not necessarily associated with any of the peaceful protests,” explained Bass. “Los Angeles is a city that is 500 square miles and any disruption took place took place in about two square miles in our city. The most – over 100 people were arrested. We are a city of 3.8 million people.”
The protests against the ICE raids across Los Angeles went on for days, leading to Trump’s deployment of 4,000 National Guard troops to the area. Although most of the protests have cooled down, the legality of Trump’s order continues its battle in the courts, with the latest judgment siding with the President.
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