Karen Bass’ Africa Trip Comes Back To Haunt Her

A video has surfaced online of a mobile billboard being driven around Los Angeles appearing to taunt Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass over her January trip to Ghana while the city was on the cusp of wind-driven wildfires.

The video advertisement, as displayed on the roving jumbotron, is a montage of animated illustrations, with one showing a likeness of Bass shopping for printed fabric sandwiched between that of firefighters agonizing over a failed fire hydrant as wildfires rage in the background. Another shows someone fleeing through a neighborhood under the imminent threat of wildfires.

It also shows the likeness of Bass taking photographs in an area with a landmark draped in the colors of the flag of Ghana before cutting to a scene showing the same likeness giving a speech against a backdrop emblazoned with the words “LAX Plane Train—Ready for the World Cup 2026.”

A likeness of Republican LA mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt is seen holding what appears to be a broomstick. The likeness of Pratt is later seen pushing a dumpster containing the image of Bass through a crowd-lined street, with a heading in Spanish that appears to pun on Bass’s last name and could be translated as “Spencer takes out the trash.”

Bass traveled to Ghana on Jan. 4, 2025 to attend the inauguration of reelected Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama, a day after the National Weather Service issued a fire weather and high wind advisory for much of LA and Ventura counties. The weather warnings escalated several times before Bass shared her first statement, which contained information that was a few hours outdated, CBS News reported.

The Palisades Fire broke out a few hours after the inauguration ceremony, and Bass appeared in photographs at a U.S. embassy Ghana cocktail party reception when the fire had burned for about an hour and a half, the outlet reported, citing The LA Times. (RELATED: Mayor Ducks Out Of Televised Debate After Failing To Escape Blame)

Bass returned to LA on Jan. 8, by which time about 1,000 structures had burned and over 70,000 Angelenos were under evacuation orders, according to CBS News.

Bass later told CBS News that, in retrospect, she would not have traveled abroad at the time. The trip signaled her fourth breach of her pre-mayoralty promise made in an October 2021 interview with the New York Times that she would not travel abroad if elected mayor.

Bass appears to be leading the five-person race for her position, while Pratt has evolved as her main rival, results of an Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics survey released Wednesday showed.