Bass dismisses Spencer Pratt as unfit to lead Los Angeles

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass dismissed reality TV personality Spencer Pratt Thursday as someone without the knowledge to run the nation's second-largest city, pressing her re-election case ahead of the June 2 vote.

The broadside reflects a turbulent re-election environment for Bass, who is defending her record after the Palisades Fire — the worst natural disaster in city history — and sustained voter frustration over homelessness, public safety and a rising cost of living.

"I don't think he has a clue," Bass said of Pratt, according to ABC7 Los Angeles. Asked what Pratt lacks, she clarified: knowledge of how to run the nation's second-largest city. The mayor acknowledged Pratt's appeal, but attributed it to the broader media landscape. "I think he's tapping into the anger and frustration that people have," Bass said. "I think we're a celebrity-driven culture."

Bass centered her re-election argument on measurable progress in homelessness. "The fact that homelessness is down 17.5% two years in a row, it is the first time we've seen a decline in street homelessness," she told ABC7. "Around the country, homelessness went up 18%." The back-to-back 17.5% reductions mark the first sustained decline the city has recorded, ABC7 reported.

Her Inside Safe initiative, which moves unhoused residents off the street and into temporary housing, has retained 60% of participants, Bass said. "60% of the people in Inside Safe have remained housed. I think it's really important to build on that success," she told ABC7. Roughly 40% of participants returned to the street, and more than 40,000 people remain homeless across Los Angeles.

On public safety, Bass said the homicide rate has hit a 60-year low. Her proposed city budget calls for 510 new LAPD hires and allocates more than $2 billion to the department. "We cannot save money based on the back of our public safety. We cannot compromise public safety," she said, according to ABC7.

The June 2 election is unfolding against a backdrop of Palisades Fire recovery, declining film and television production, and years of compounding frustration with homelessness and street crime. Pratt, who entered the race drawing on his celebrity profile, has channeled that discontent into a competitive challenge against the two-term incumbent.

The race concludes June 2, with the winner inheriting a city still grappling with post-fire recovery, a strained housing market and pressure to sustain fragile gains on homelessness and crime.