Los Angeles has been burning, literally and figuratively, under left-wing leadership for years.
Now, one of the candidates trying to replace Mayor Karen Bass just got caught in a jaw-dropping reversal on live television.
And Spencer Pratt put a Democratic mayoral candidate on the spot, and she instantly regretted her own record.
From “Defund the Police” to “We Need More Cops” — In One Campaign
Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nithya Raman told CNN on Saturday she no longer believed it was necessary to “defund the police,” despite her calls to do so in the past. The democratic socialist candidate — who is battling incumbent Karen Bass and former reality star Spencer Pratt to become LA’s next mayor — was asked by anchor Jessica Dean to explain her “position change,” after Dean noted Raman had called for defunding the police in 2020.
Raman’s answer on CNN: “Well, I think we need to be able to respond to calls for help. Public safety is incredibly important, and our police force has shrunk significantly. And I think we absolutely need to be able to ensure that when someone calls for help in this city, that the city is able to respond in a timely fashion and that they’re able to offer the help that we need.”
Dean followed up and asked point blank: “So you no longer believe in defunding police?”
The whole thing would be almost funny if the stakes weren’t so serious. This is a city where people watched their neighborhoods burn while the mayor was out of the country.
Raman’s statements represent a considerable evolution from 2020, when she became the first person elected to the City Council with the support of the Democratic Socialists of America. “Defund the police,” she declared at one point during her campaign.
In a 14,000-word platform, she advocated for the LAPD to be transformed into a “much smaller, specialized armed force,” with responsibility for traffic enforcement, car crashes, and nonviolent mental health crises shifted to other agencies.
That’s not a minor footnote. That’s the whole ballgame. And she wants voters to forget it ever happened.
Pratt Didn’t Let Her Off the Hook
Pratt bashed Raman for it soon after, saying LA was sick of politicians who “bend over for whatever is convenient at that moment.” “Nithya Raman is a perfect example,” Pratt said in a video posted to X. “When defunding the police was trendy with her base, she leaned in. When activists demanded it, she rolled with the mob. Now that families are less safe and too afraid to walk around their own neighborhoods, suddenly she’s against it. How is anyone supposed to trust her?”
And on February 13, Pratt went after her on social media with a simple, pointed question. “So Nithya Raman wants to both defund the police AND add more police? Will the real shady slim please stand up?”
Say what you want about the guy — and plenty of people in Los Angeles have — but he’s not wrong about this one.
As the debate shifted to public safety, Pratt took an opportunity to slam Raman for historically advocating for decreased police funding. “Councilwoman Raman keeps saying that the police department is overfunded — public safety should be our number one priority,” he said.
Pratt proposed providing more resources to the Los Angeles Police Department to ultimately build the force to 12,500 officers.
The Backstory Nobody in the Media Wants to Talk About
Spencer Pratt met with Access Hollywood’s Scott Evans at the site of his and wife Heidi’s former home in Pacific Palisades. Until the Palisades Fires broke out in 2025, Pratt was best known as a reality TV show personality who appeared on MTV’s “The Hills.”
Pratt said he “didn’t want to run for mayor,” but that changed when he lost his home to the devastating Palisades Fire. “I had to step up so that my sons one day can … come back here and live in the L.A. that I lived in — beautiful, safe,” he said. “I’m standing in what happened because of failed politicians.”
But the political class in Los Angeles treated him like a punchline. They’re not laughing as hard now.
Pratt has ripped Raman and Bass for their handling of crime and the city’s homeless issue; he has also said Bass is unfit to lead the city after the way she handled the wildfires that ravaged LA in early 2025.
Conservative commentators on social media, as well as some on the left, generally felt that Pratt exceeded expectations as he jumps into politics following his history as a reality star on “The Hills.”
Nobody handed him that. He earned it by showing up and saying what people actually believe.
The Polls Are Telling a Story
Prediction market Kalshi has Bass in the lead with a 49% chance to win, followed by Pratt with a 29% chance. Raman was leading the pack with a 50% shot last week, but her odds have dropped to 18% after the trio debated a few days ago.
One debate. One CNN interview. And Raman went from frontrunner to afterthought in the span of a few days.
Pratt is polling second in the mayoral race for the second-largest city in the United States. Los Angeles has not had a Republican mayor since 2001, when Richard Riordan was elected in 1993 and served two terms.
That’s a 25-year drought. And yet here’s a reality TV star making a serious run at it, because the city is so far gone that even lifelong Democrats are willing to take a chance on an outsider.
“It’s going to be a hard road to convince a very blue city like L.A. to take a chance on not only a novice politician, but somebody who has pretty much aligned himself with Donald Trump and with Republicans,” said Melanie Mason, Politico’s California bureau chief.
That’s the conventional wisdom. And conventional wisdom is what got Los Angeles into this mess.
What This Really Means
The “defund the police” crowd spent years telling Americans that law enforcement was the problem. Crime soared. Homelessness exploded. Neighborhoods that used to be safe became no-go zones. And the politicians who pushed those policies are now scrambling to pretend they never believed any of it.
Raman isn’t the first. She won’t be the last. But she got caught on live television in a way that’s hard to spin, and she has Spencer Pratt to thank for making sure the camera was pointed in the right direction.
Pratt put it plainly: “I’m not running on a party label — I’m running against a record of destruction. Karen Bass and Nithya Raman have steered the precipitous decline of this city, and no amount of PR can hide what Angelenos of every class, race, and political party can see with their own eyes every day.”
The June 2 primary is coming fast. And right now, the candidate who spent years calling for defunding the police is trying to convince Los Angeles voters she’s the law-and-order choice. Good luck with that.
Sources: Mediaite, Yahoo News UK, Fox News, CBS News, NBC Los Angeles, Los Angeles Times via Yahoo News, The Real Deal LA, Ballotpedia