Karen Bass didn’t seem the least bit concerned that a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson left open the possibility that the Los Angeles mayor could be arrested for appearing during a recent ice sweep in MacArthur Park.
Armed federal agents wearing face masks and military gear march through Westlake Park, in the heart of an immigrant neighborhood, on Monday. Bass described the scene in Westlake Park—”where nothing was happening,” she noted—as what a city looks like “before a coup.”
MSNBC host Chris Hayes said Tuesday night that “the entire operation was intended as a show of presence, according to internal Army documents he obtained, which have not been independently verified by NBC News.” Bass — who said he had no formal communication about the attack beforehand — arrived at the scene shortly after the attack began, telling agents to leave immediately.
“I was sitting in a room and everyone’s phone started blowing up, and that told me the military had arrived at a park,” Bass said. “And to see the soldiers march… they literally marched through the children’s summer camp. The children had to be herded into a building so they wouldn’t be exposed to the scene.”
Bass said he wasn’t sure what kind of agent was marching through the park.
“That’s one of the mysteries of what’s happening in our city,” Bass said. “What I do know is that the Customs and Border Patrol was definitely there. I’ve been told that the National Guard and the Marines were playing different roles, some on the periphery, but we don’t know that for sure.”
She said plainclothes officers were also on the scene: “Jumping out of unmarked cars with tinted windows, no license plates, brandishing guns, pulling people off the street. That’s the scene in Los Angeles right now.”
Hayes cut to a clip of DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin, who was asked if Bass’s presence would justify an arrest. McLaughlin said the idea was “on the table.”
Bass was at least a little amused.
“Are they going to arrest me for doing my job as mayor?” she said. “My number one responsibility is to keep Angelenos safe. Now, it never occurred to me that I would have to worry about keeping Angelenos safe from my own government—from military personnel who should be overseas fighting foreign enemies, from Customs and Border Patrol—we’re about 2.5 hours from a border—or from the National Guard who have been unnecessarily federated.”
Hayes then cut to a clip of Southern California Border Patrol Sector Chief Greg Bovino, who made it clear that, in the words of MSNBC, “It’s My City Now” — and, in his, that the federal government “doesn’t work for Karen Bass.”
“I just have to say I think it’s pathetic,” Bass said. “I mean, last time I checked, we all work for the American people. And so, like I said, I’m the duly elected official here to represent the city, and it’s my job to protect the city.”
Bass denied interfering in the attack by simply showing up and asking the officers to leave.
“It’s my responsibility to ask, ‘What are you doing here in this park where nothing is happening? Why are you grabbing people off the street?’ Making many people believe that kidnappings are taking place,” she said.
Watch the entire exchange in the video above.
