LA Mayor Karen Bass’ excuse for being in Ghana as her city burned

Embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has offered a mind-boggling excuse for being 7,500 miles away in Ghana as her city was consumed by wildfires — blaming others for not telling her she “shouldn’t have gone on the trip.”

Bass claimed she wasn’t alerted to the widely shared warnings of the wildfire risk as she flew to Africa on behalf of the Biden administration.

“We need to look at everything about the preparation and all of that for the fires… I think when we evaluate that, we will find that although there were warnings, that I frankly wasn’t aware of…” Bass told Fox 11 before noting the city’s preparation “wasn’t what it typically is.”

“That level of preparation didn’t happen,” she added, blaming everyone but herself. “If it had, I wouldn’t have even gone to San Diego, let alone leave the country.”

Bass again claimed that fire officials didn’t raise concerns and told her that the Santa Ana winds blamed for spreading the fires were a common occurrence.

“From the city, from the county, that level of preparation didn’t happen. So it didn’t reach that level to me, to say, something terrible could happen and maybe you shouldn’t have gone on the trip,” she continued.

Bass then said there were two ongoing investigations into the fires, one internal to the city’s response and another looking at the fires overall.

“I will tell you that I felt absolutely terrible not being here for my city, and not being here for my family, who was impacted by the fires as well,” Bass said.

“When I say it was a mistake, absolutely, the idea that I was not present was very painful.”

Bass was in Ghana when the fires began, even though there was a high fire risk known at the time.

The Palisades Fire started Jan. 7 and escalated through the night, but the mayor did not get back into the city until Jan. 8, and did not answer repeated questions from a Sky News reporter upon her arrival, drawing swift criticism over her response.

The nearly 24,000-acre Palisades Fire destroyed over 6,800 buildings, damaged 973 buildings and resulted in 12 deaths, according to state government data.