Two LA-based actresses claimed embattled Mayor Karen Bass is only facing backlash because of her race — instead of forcing drastic cuts to the fire department and being out of the US when the historic deadly wildfires started.
“Act Your Age” co-stars Yvette Nicole Brown and Kym Whitley defended Bass as calls for her removal from office skyrocketed Saturday.
“She’s got a spine of steel, and she’s been a black woman in America for a really long time,” Brown told TMZ. “None of this is new.”
Brown, 53, has lived in the City of Angels for nearly three decades but couldn’t recall another mayor facing the same scrutiny as Bass, suggesting the criticism stemmed from racism.
“We have fires every year, and I don’t remember in the almost 30 years that I’ve lived in LA, I’ve never seen everybody react like this to the mayor and blame one person for a natural disaster,” Brown said.
“Now what’s different this time?” she questioned.
The enraged “Community” alum says she was standing up for Bass because she was “tired” of watching the 71-year-old mayor be the lone scapegoat for the deadly blazes despite the fires decimating several cities in the area.
“She is also not the mayor of every municipality in California, there are people mad because she didn’t fix the fires in Malibu,” Brown said. “She’s not the mayor of Malibu. What is she supposed to do in a city she’s not the mayor of?”
Whitley was forced to evacuate her Tarzana home with her son when the fire threatened her neighborhood.
The actresses insisted Bass was heartbroken to watch a city “she loves” get destroyed by the fires, and the citizens of the city call her out for the response.
“Stand behind her, support her, because you can see it in her face she stays calm,” Whitley said. “Think about this, she has the city to take care of, she doesn’t have time to hear what these reports are saying.
“This is not the time to blame, it’s time to get some resources, she has reached out far. We have planes coming in from other countries to help us.”
Firefighters from Mexico landed at Los Angeles International Airport Saturday to help battle the fires, a sight welcomed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The landing of the crews from south of the border comes a day after Bass declined the FDNY’s offer to send its resources out to the Golden State.
JetBlue offered to fly New York’s Bravest to the West Coast, but Bass rebuffed the sentiment, The Post reported Friday. Her office later denied the snub.
Bass has been criticized for her actions since the Palisades Fire broke out in the Pacific Palisades Tuesday morning, while she was in West Africa for the inauguration of the Ghanaian president.
The Los Angeles Fire Department’s funding was slashed after Bass awarded gilded contracts to city workers.
The trouble began early last year after Bass settled contract negotiations with public sector unions. In dozens of agreements, the city’s civilian employees pocketed 20 to 25 percent wage hikes over five years and other goodies that cost the city $4.5 billion over the life of the contracts, according to an analysis by the city’s administrative officer, the City Journal reported.
Several celebrities have bashed Bass for her handling of the situation.
Khloe Kardashian took to social media Friday, calling the LA leader “a joke” while defending LAFD Chief Kristin 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!!!!” she wrote.
Actor Zachary Levi called the poor leadership in Southern California “criminally negligent” for the events and preparations leading up to the fires.
“This is just incredible mismanagement, incredibly poor leadership” the “Shazam” star told Fox News’ Jesse Waters.
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