[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has once again found herself at the center of controversy as she desperately tried to explain her absence during the wildfires that ravaged her city.
As the deadly Palisades Fire began to burn, Bass had been on a trip to Ghana representing the Biden administration.
Standing firm that she was unaware of the fire risks when she left to go abroad, the mayor doubled down on Wednesday, assuring reporters once again that she came back home as soon as she could.
'You do gain time coming back, but I will tell you that it's not like there are hourly flights from Accra, Ghana, to the United States,' Bass said.
Despite her remarks, the mayor received harsh backlash when she was pictured at a cocktail party at the US Embassy while wildfires began to destroy the Pacific Palisades.
Bass, who recently fired Chief Kristin Crowley over her response to the wildfires, previously said that no one informed her of the fire risks and has stood firm that if she had known, she wouldn't have gone on the trip.
'We need to look at everything about the preparation and all of that for the fires... I think when we evaluate that, we will find that although there were warnings - that I frankly wasn't aware of.'
'I think our preparation wasn't what it typically is... That level of preparation really didn't happen. If it had, I wouldn't even have gone to San Diego, let alone leave the country,' she said in an interview.
Los Angeles officials have been under scrutiny for the devastating wildfires that killed at least 28 people and demolished over 19,000 homes across the city.
Authorities have continued to play the blame game, with Bass accusing Crowley of failing to properly staff the disaster, while the United Firefighters of LA hit back that the unused firetrucks didn't have working engines.
Bass cited the unused firetrucks as Crowley's reason for dismissal, writing in a scathing statement, 'Acting in the best interests of Los Angeles' public safety, and for the operations of the Los Angeles Fire Department, I have removed Kristin Crowley as Fire Chief.'
'We know that 1,000 firefighters that could have been on duty on the morning the fires broke out were instead sent home on Chief Crowley's watch.
'Furthermore, a necessary step to an investigation was the President of the Fire Commission telling Chief Crowley to do an after action report on the fires. The Chief refused. These require her removal.'
Crowley broke her silence the following day, saying it was an 'absolute honor' to represent the LAFD, but didn't address Bass or the controversy directly.
Since her removal, firefighters have rallied around Crowley, with many claiming the move was to take the heat off Bass.
'It's really simple, Crowley was afraid of getting blamed so she threw Bass under the bus. Then Bass retaliated against her and threw Crowley under the bus,' a veteran firefighter previously told the DailyMail.com.
President of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City echoed a similar belief, claiming Crowley was, 'a scapegoat to distract from the failure of the city and complete neglect of the fire department.'
'We don't have enough firefighters, not enough working rigs, broken down fire hydrants and a water supply that ran dry, but Chief Crowley is the one who gets terminated? It doesn't make sense.'
The back and forth between Bass and Crowley began before the wildfires that ravaged the city when the former fire chief accused the city of slashing their budget.
Bass approved budget cuts of $17.6 million in December, prompting Crowley to write her a memo that warned the cuts would, 'severely limited the department's capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires.'
Dailymail.com previously revealed a second memo written the day before the fires alleging further cuts to the tune of $49 million.
Crowley had been outspoken about how the cuts impacted the LAFD and frequently called out the mayor's office publicly for underfunding the department.
Even though they both claimed to be working together amicably, the public rift was undeniable.
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