Rick Caruso defended his criticisms of the city of Los Angeles and Mayor Karen Bass’ mismanagement and “incapable leadership” during the January fires onstage at Bloomberg’s Screentime event on Thursday.
Just one day prior, L.A. Mayor Bass called Caruso, her former political opponent, “sad and bitter” after his X statement about her leadership. Caruso, who lost his Malibu home but was able to protect his Palisades Village retail center, responded that of course he was.
“You know how many hundreds of thousands of people are angry and sad after yesterday?” the real estate developer said, referencing the news of the alleged arsonist arrested in connection with the Palisades fire. “They lost their jobs, lost their homes, 11 people died and you read that report and you think you’re not going to be angry?”
The real estate developer also scoffed at Bass’ comparison of him to President Donald Trump, adding that he plans to support Governor Gavin Newsom’s Prop 50, the answer to Republican gerrymandering efforts in Texas and other states.
“It’s just an empty go-to comment,” he told Bloomberg’s L.A. Bureau Chief John Gittelsohn. “I’m the farthest thing from Donald Trump. I haven’t met the guy. I never supported the guy. I campaigned against the guy.”
Caruso teased that he still wants to take part in California politics. Whether that is on the state or city level, he is still not sure. The billionaire businessman ran for mayor against Bass in 2022, which she won in a runoff election that November.
“I don’t want a career in politics,” he said. “I want to do what I did for three mayors, but do it either in their seat or the governor’s seat where I can make some really good changes that make this area more livable, safer, cleaner, more cost effective.”
The businessman continued his criticism of Los Angeles’ leadership and its handling of the fires, pointing to LAFD’s After-Action report. The report noted that the fire was preventable and was started a week prior by an alleged arsonist, named Jonathan Rinderknecht, who arrested and charged on Tuesday.
He pointed out several missteps mentioned in the report, including that the fire department did not redeploy, they didn’t call in when the fire started taking off and they didn’t call an aircraft for support.
“What we need to do now is read that report and have a solution for every one of those problems, so, God forbid, it never happens again,” he said. “Let’s not be reactive to it. Let’s be proactive, and let’s make sure that nobody else ever has to go through a situation like that.”
