During an interview with “The New Yorker Radio Hour” released on Friday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said that “being out of the country” during the fires in the city “was very painful.” And “you feel awful about it.” She also stated that she didn’t take it personally “even when I had all of the criticism and hate,” because people were grieving and being mad at her helped them feel better.
Bass stated, [relevant remarks begin around 22:50] “I don’t take things personally, even when I had all of the criticism and hate, frankly, I knew that people were grieving and one of the stages of grief is anger and people feel better if they can target their anger somewhere, because some of what they were angry at me for [was] totally beyond my control.”
She continued, “But I will tell you, being out of the country was very painful. And I describe it as if you’re out of town and a member of your family or one of your kids gets in an accident or is sick, it doesn’t matter where you were or why you were there, you feel awful about it. And I had to deal with it personally, my brother lost his home in the Malibu area. So, I’m having to deal with it personally and professionally at the same time.”
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