A lot of people are wondering if things in Los Angeles would look different if Rick Caruso had won the mayoral race against Karen Bass in 2022. If he had been mayor when devastating fires began in the city last month, could he have prevented them from consuming about 40,000 acres—an area twice the size of Manhattan?
At the time Caruso ran, many quietly supported the billionaire real estate mogul—scared to come out publicly for the white Boomer billionaire against the candidate (a black woman and a former physician assistant who happened to travel to Cuba eight times in the 1970s) who was backed by Barack Obama and celebrities like Shonda Rhimes and Ariana Grande.
But disaster has a way of clarifying things. And many—including the LA Times owner whose paper endorsed Bass—are expressing serious buyer’s remorse.
Does this annoy Caruso? And does he think Bass won because of her identity? If the election were held today, would things have turned out differently?
Today on Honestly, I sat down with Rick Caruso for a very frank conversation. How frank?
Bari Weiss: Did any Hollywood celebrities tell you privately that they would vote for you for mayor in 2022, but felt like they couldn’t make a public endorsement?
Rick Caruso: Yeah. I won’t name names, but many people did at the time. I mean, it was politically incorrect if you were for me in some circles.
BW: Do you think that would be different if you ran today?
RC: I think it would be different. I may be kidding myself, but I think it would be different. If I could call somebody out, you take a guy like Katzenberg, who led the charge against me and supported Karen and raised a lot of money and cast me as a really terrible human being.
BW: And covered up Joe Biden’s mental state.
RC: Exactly. The other day, I was at an event and he came up to me and tried to shake my hand and I said, “There’s no way I’ll ever shake your hand.” I think those kinds of people are dangerous in politics, and they should be held accountable for the things that they did.
BW: Did you actually say that to him? “I won’t shake your hand.”
RC: I would not shake his hand.
BW: And how did he reply?
RC: He just had this sort of stunned look on his face. But I think this is where core values and character matter. And if you want to oppose me, at least do it in a way that has a sense of honesty to it. But if you’re not going to be honest, I don’t want you in my world and I’m certainly not going to give you the benefit of a handshake, which is a gesture of friendship. There is no friendship there because he disrespected my family. And so unless he says he’s sorry publicly and that what he said was wrong publicly—at that point, I’ll forgive him because forgiveness is important. But until then, I won’t.
Caruso may have lost—and no thanks, apparently, to Jeffrey Katzenberg—but he’s acting now like a de facto public official through a nonprofit he calls Steadfast LA.
Everyone in California is watching to see what Caruso does next. Will he run for mayor again? Or governor? And most pressingly, can Caruso figure out a way to save Los Angeles?
We also talk about Gavin Newsom; private-sector firefighters; school choice; Trump’s immigration plans; and much more.
Click the video at the top of this post to watch our full conversation, or listen here:
The ratio of total replies to me to the number of them that actually ever addressed the Eaton fire being in Altadena and thus completely separate from Los Angeles City and Karen Bass is infinite.
Rick is just too nice of a guy to succeed in the current political environment. Level headed, not extreme, positive, intelligent and he would make all the right decisions.
If only the media and the democratic establishment would promote people like this. People would not be forced to vote for a champion who will fight dirty just like they do. I feel sorry for Rick you can hear the bitterness in his voice, even now he can’t accept that his ability to win will be highly dependent on the democratic establishment and whether they choose him. Spoiler alert they won’t, but if they want to win and have someone with experience and actual ability to do the job of leading a city or state, they should.