Los Angeles is burning — politically, this time.
Gavin Newsom just threw his support behind Karen Bass, and the blowback was instant.
And what Spencer Pratt said on Fox News about both of them is something they desperately don’t want voters to hear before Tuesday.
Two Democrats, One Endorsement, and a Firestorm
California Governor Gavin Newsom waited until just five days before the June 2 primary to publicly back incumbent Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in her reelection bid. The timing wasn’t subtle. A new UC Berkeley-Los Angeles Times poll had just dropped showing Bass clinging to a razor-thin lead — 26% to Councilwoman Nithya Raman’s 25% and Spencer Pratt’s 22% — and the numbers were trending the wrong direction for her fast.
Newsom’s statement credited Bass with “an 18% decline in homelessness” and “historic drops in violent crime.” Pratt’s response to that was short and direct: “Newsom and Karen Bass make up stats.”
“Those are not real numbers,” Pratt said. “Anybody with eyeballs in the state of California or Los Angeles knows that there has not been a reduction in one homeless person. Actually, there’s been an increase of naked drug addict zombies in front of every kid’s playground, every kid’s school, every coffee shop.”
Hard to argue with a man who watched his own neighborhood turn to ash.
Pratt Goes on Fox News and Doesn’t Hold Back
In a preview clip of an upcoming interview on Fox News, Pratt unloaded on both politicians in terms that left little room for interpretation. Asked about Newsom’s endorsement of Bass, Pratt said the pairing made complete sense to him — just not for the reasons Newsom intended.
“It’s not shocking ’cause they’re alleged criminal partners,” Pratt said. “Not only did they work together in their negligence in burning down 7,000 houses and 12 people alive, but they’re both complicit in laundering — what? — $24 billion to actually increase homelessness. They both should be in jail together.”
Fox News host Martha MacCallum took note of the weight of the accusation. “Wow. Some pretty charges there from Spencer Pratt about Newsom and Bass, calling them essentially a criminal combine,” she said.
Fox News contributor Mary Katharine Ham put it a different way, saying Newsom endorsing Bass amounted to “failures of a feather flocking together.” Ham went on: “And he can make that message very clear: ‘They have done all of these things in the past, they have not served you, they’ve taken your money, and made things worse. When you look around you, are you doing better?'”
That last question is the one Bass and Newsom can’t seem to answer to anyone’s satisfaction.
The Man Behind the Message
Spencer Pratt isn’t some outside agitator who parachuted into Los Angeles politics for the cameras. He and his wife, Heidi Montag, lost their Pacific Palisades home in the January 2025 fires. His parents lost their home too. He says he knew people who burned alive across the street from his childhood home.
Pratt announced his mayoral campaign on the one-year anniversary of the Palisades fire, standing on the same ground where the disaster unfolded. He has since sued the city of Los Angeles and the Department of Water and Power, alleging what court documents describe as “inverse condemnation” — a legal claim that allows property owners to seek compensation when government action damages their property. He traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with federal officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, pushing for a federal investigation into how Newsom and Bass handled the disaster.
“I’m literally their worst nightmare because I have nothing to lose, and all I’m ever gonna do is just post actual facts,” Pratt told Variety.
And he kept going. “The more of these meetings I take, the more I find out about how preventable this was. It’s actually criminal negligence because in the Palisades fire alone, 12 people died. These people shouldn’t have died.”
Those aren’t talking points. That’s a man who lived it.
Bass Was in Ghana When Los Angeles Burned
One detail that keeps resurfacing in this race: Karen Bass had pledged not to travel overseas as mayor. She broke that pledge and was in Ghana when the Palisades fire broke out on January 7, 2025. Pratt has never let her forget it.
“She should have resigned on January 7, when she was in Ghana and everything was burning,” Pratt said on the “Good Guys” podcast. “She decided to continue on this quest of destroying Los Angeles. And I personally would like my children to be able to grow up in an L.A. that I grew up in — a beautiful L.A.; an L.A. that had hopes and dreams.”
Bass accused Pratt of “exploiting” the tragedy for political gain. His response was to point out that he lived in a trailer on his burned-out lot. Political strategist Elizabeth Barcohana pushed back on Bass directly, saying: “To accuse Spencer Pratt — who lives in his burned-out lot in a trailer — of ‘exploiting grief’ is a new low.”
And Bass, for her part, blamed the fires on climate change, telling reporters: “These fires, it was the worst natural disaster that we experienced in our city — at the root of it, you know, we have to get adjusted to — just like everybody else in the nation — to different weather experiences that we’re not used to because of climate change.”
That explanation didn’t go over well with people who watched the hydrants run dry.
Donald Trump and the Growing Pratt Coalition
President Donald Trump endorsed Pratt, saying: “I’d like to see him do well. I don’t know him. I assume he probably supports me. I heard he’s a big MAGA person.” Pratt has clarified he’s focused on Los Angeles, not national politics, but the MAGA world has embraced him regardless.
His endorsers now include Paris Hilton, Adam Carolla, James Woods, and Katharine McPhee, who organized a fundraiser for him. Even his sister Stephanie Pratt — who had previously told voters not to vote for him — reversed course and backed him publicly. “I admit I was the first person to tell people that they were idiots if they voted for my brother. Wow, was I wrong,” she said. “He has spent every day since the fires, finding the facts, the mistakes, the negligence and uncovering the truth that they never wanted us to know.”
Pratt has raised more than $500,000 for the campaign.
What Comes Next
The June 2 primary almost certainly won’t produce a winner. With Bass at 26%, Raman at 25%, and Pratt at 22% in the latest polling, nobody is clearing the 50% threshold needed to avoid a November runoff. That means the two candidates who finish on top head to a general election — and the math on that race looks very different from the primary.
But Newsom’s last-minute endorsement tells you something. California’s Democrat machine doesn’t throw its weight behind a candidate unless it’s worried. The governor spent months hedging on Bass, saying he only “broadly” supported her and that he’d be “kicking the tires” on her fire response. He waited until the week of the election to go all in.
That’s not confidence. That’s damage control.
And Spencer Pratt — a man who used to be known for starting drama on a reality TV show — is now the reason the most powerful Democrat in California had to scramble to save one of his own. Whatever happens Tuesday, the city of Los Angeles is not going back to sleep.
Sources: Mediaite; Fox News; Townhall; Washington Examiner; Fox 11 Los Angeles; NBC Los Angeles; KTLA; CBS Los Angeles; Variety; Fox News Digital