What did Karen Bass do? Khloé Kardashian slams LA mayor amid ongoing wildfires

Khloé Kardashian has publicly criticized Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass amid the ongoing wildfires in California, which have led to widespread evacuations and caused significant destruction in the region. Khloé Kardashian's frustration stems from comments made by Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) Chief Kristin Crowley, who accused the mayor of failing the city in the face of the disaster.

The fires, which began on January 7, have forced thousands of residents, including several high-profile celebrities, to flee their homes.

On January 10, Kardashian shared a clip from a Fox 11 interview in which Crowley discussed the impact of budget cuts made by Bass months before the fires erupted. During the interview, when asked if Bass had failed the city, Crowley did not hesitate to answer, "Yes."

Karen Bass, the Mayor of Los Angeles, faced backlash for approving a budget cut to the city's Fire Department in the 2024-25 fiscal year. As per Fox 11, this amounted to $17.6 million. These cuts, which were made months before the wildfires, negatively impacted the department's emergency response capabilities, compounding the crisis.

The referenced budget cuts were implemented after a tense meeting between Bass and Crowley.

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Khloé Kardashian speaks on budget cut of the LA Fire Department

Khloé Kardashian slams LA mayor amid ongoing wildfires (Image via Instagram/@khloekardashian)

Khloé Kardashian, who had to evacuate her Hidden Hills home as the fires spread, posted a screen grab of the interview on her Instagram story supporting Crowley.

"I stand by YOU Chief Crowley!!!! You spoke the truth and you had tears in your eyes because I can tell you didn’t even want to say that but it was THE TRUTH!!!!" Khloé Kardashian wrote.

Khloé Kardashian continued her statement by thanking Crowley for her honesty before turning her attention to Mayor Bass, calling her "a joke!!!!"

Actress Sarah Michelle Gellar posted on her Instagram story on Tuesday, expressing frustration at the city’s handling of the evacuations.

"City of LA you want everyone to evacuate yet you have complete gridlock and not one traffic cop on the roads helping," she wrote, tagging the official social media accounts of the City of Los Angeles and Mayor Bass.

Real estate mogul Mauricio Umansky, who is based in Southern California and appeared in Netflix’s Buying Beverly Hills, also weighed in on the situation. He criticized the state and local government’s lack of preparation for the wildfires, pointing out that California, despite its status as one of the world’s largest economies, was unprepared for such a disaster.

"We didn’t do the brush clearance. We didn’t have the water in the fire hydrants. We were unprepared, and we did not spend the money where we needed to spend the money," Umansky told Fox News Digital.

Actress Justine Bateman, during an appearance on Jesse Watters Primetime, stated that the failure to adequately prepare for the disaster warranted resignation.

"If you’re not doing everything you can to take care of those problems if they arrive, then get out," Bateman said. "You are useless to us."

According to Reuters, the fires have already caused an estimated $20 billion in damages, and the crisis is still ongoing. Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles officials have faced mounting pressure from the public and celebrities who feel that more should have been done to protect the city from such devastation.