Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass compared the impact of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids to the coronavirus lockdowns that her party imposed on California, in that both kept people at home.
Bass made the comparison over the weekend in visits to small businesses in a neighborhood that, the Los Angeles Times, depended on the “immigrant” economy (the Times never used the word “illegal).
The Times reported:
Bass visited a number of small businesses in Boyle Heights with Assemblymember Mark Gonzalez (D-Los Angeles), including Casa Fina, Distrito Catorce, Yeya’s and Birrieria De Don Boni, as well as the Estrada Courts public housing project, where Bass and Gonzalez both said residents were reluctant to come outside of their homes for a Father’s Day celebration.
“It’s the uncertainty that continues that has an absolute economic impact. But it is pretty profound to walk up and down the streets and to see the empty streets, it reminded me of COVID,” Bass told The Times on Sunday afternoon.
Bass said restaurant operators in Boyle Heights told her current circumstances were actually worse than what they had faced during COVID-19, because unlike during the pandemic, there had been no ensuing bump in to-go orders. She hypothesized that the issue was compounded by the fact that many people were not going in to work, meaning they didn’t have disposable income to eat out.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Bass’s party, especially in California, pushed for stay-at-home orders, school closures, and mask mandates, which had a negative economic impact but minimal positive benefit.
Bass also joined her party in trying to blame President Donald Trump for the coronavirus, partly because he was skeptical of shutdowns and mandates. Democrats claimed that his approach put Americans at risk.
Donald Trump is incapable of empathy and doesn't believe in science.
— Congressmember Bass (@RepKarenBass) July 23, 2020
He's the last person who should be briefing the American people about the coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/9Fj2v8bGDl
Bass has blamed Trump for escalating riots in her city, and suggested that ongoing unrest in Los Angeles will only end when ICE raids end, thereby signaling a form of support for the unrest, justifying it after the fact.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
