President Trump questioned Spencer Pratt’s performance in the Los Angeles mayoral race after the latter walked out after a disagreement during a “Meet the Press” interview.
Spencer Pratt loses office in Los Angeles mayoral race
Spencer Pratt has fallen to third place in the Los Angeles mayoral race after a new drop in votes on June 7th.
Reality TV alum Spencer Pratt will not advance to a showdown with incumbent Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, NBC News and the Associated Press predict, as President Donald Trump publicly questions the city’s election.
Instead, Basu, a former U.S. congressman, is expected to run against his former ally, Los Angeles City Council member Nitya Raman. In a June 8 post on his platform, Truth Social, Trump promoted baseless claims about California’s election laws.
“There is no way Spencer Pratt will lose the LA runoff after holding a huge lead. Third country in the world. Election fraud!” Trump wrote. Referring to his British-born gubernatorial race, Trump added, “Now they’re going to work on a great man, Steve Hilton. The results won’t be known for probably two weeks, according to people involved.”
The comments came after Trump removed his microphone and abruptly left the June 7 interview on “Meet the Press” after a tense disagreement with host Kristen Welker over the security of California’s elections. Pratt also repeatedly questioned last weekend’s vote count, reassuring supporters that “there are still hundreds of votes left and L.A. officials have given us the next three weeks to count them,” adding, “Let’s do it!”
Mr. Pratt, who was once publicly known as the infamous 2000s reality TV villain on MTV’s hit show “The Hills,” ran a campaign criticizing Bass as incompetent and unable to address the city’s homelessness rate and drug use. But his hopes of running the nation’s second-largest city were snatched away by Mr. Raman, a progressive who ran to the left of Mr. Pratt and Mr. Bass.
According to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder and County Clerk, as of Monday, June 8, Bass leads the race with 34.32%, followed by Raman with 28.55% and Pratt with 25.83%. Authorities are scheduled to certify the election results on June 26.
Pratt echoed the frustration of some Angelenos after losing their homes in the city’s wildfires last year. Bass was criticized for traveling abroad to Ghana amid the looming fire situation.
Raman, who is in his second term on the Los Angeles City Council, entered the race on February 7, the last day to register. When Raman was elected in 2020, he became the first challenger to unseat an incumbent Los Angeles City Council member in 17 years.
Trump was traveling to the East Coast for the NBA Finals when NBC News and the Associated Press released their predictions in West Coast cities. He arrived at Madison Square Garden for Game 3 between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to attend an NBA Finals game.
When he appeared on a video screen during the national anthem, he held up a flag and chanted “USA, USA, USA” several times before being loudly booed.
contribution: Marc Jeannot, USA TODAY Sports, Paris Barraza, USA TODAY Network
