‘How dare you.' Mayor Bass blasts VP Vance for his comments during LA visit
The mayor slammed the vice president for his "disrespect" after he mistakenly called Sen. Alex Padilla "Jose Padilla" in an earlier presser.
By Missael Soto • Published June 20, 2025 • Updated on June 20, 2025 at 7:30 pm
Mayor Karen Bass took aim at JD Vance Friday for the comments he made during his visit to Los Angeles, accusing the vice president of "spewing lies" and disrespecting Sen. Alex Padilla.
The heated exchange comes just hours after the vice president's own press conference, where he took jabs at both Mayor Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom, claiming their decisions and policies are "endangering" federal officials.
"The vice president of the United States spent three or four hours in LA before holding a press conference and spewing lies and utter nonsense in an attempt to provoke division and conflict in our city," said Bass. "This is consistent with the provocation from Washington that began two weeks ago, when our city was calm and many and millions of Angelenos were going about working and contributing to our city."
The mayor also criticized Vance for referring to Sen. Alex Padilla as "Jose Padilla," someone he served with before serving as vice president.
"How dare you disrespect our senator? You don't know his name, but yet you served with him before you were vice president, and you continue to serve with him today, because the last time I checked, the Vice President of the United States is the president of the US Senate," said Bass. "You served with him today, and how dare you disrespect him and call him Jose, but I guess he just looked like anybody to you. Well, he's not just anybody to us. He is our senator."
The mayor emphasized that the protests, which Vance criticized harshly, were mostly peaceful, and that the city has streets have been quiet since they lifted the curfew.
"Even when there was vandalism at its height, you were talking about a couple of hundred people who were not necessarily associated with any of the peaceful protests," said Bass. "Los Angeles is a city that is 500 square miles and any disruption took place took place in about two square miles in our city. The most – over 100 people were arrested. We are a city of 3.8 million people."
Bass added that the vice president's message Friday was an attempt "to provoke division and conflict in our city."
Gov. Newsom also responded to the vice president's comments, challenging Vance to a debate.
Hey @JDVance — nice of you to finally make it out to California.
Since you’re so eager to talk about me, how about saying it to my face?
Let’s debate. Time and place?
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 20, 2025
more
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/mayor-bass-blasts-vp-vance-senator-padilla/3729171/
