00:00I've just watched the mayoral debate, the first debate of the general election between incumbent
00:04mayor Karen Bass and challenger city council member Nithya Raman, and it was frankly terrible.
00:10Both candidates deserved to lose the debate. Perhaps the worst moment of the night was when
00:15Raman admitted that she had missed literally thousands of city council meetings and votes,
00:19and Bass didn't really do much better. She struggled to explain why all of the things
00:24she says she wants to do now hadn't been done already. But Raman really struggled to answer
00:28questions. And the host was the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association. These are her own
00:32constituents. And they were clearly frustrated with her policies on street vendors and her
00:37policies on homelessness. And at one point they asked her, when are the attacks on single family
00:41homes going to stop? And she said, the attacks are going to continue until we build more dense
00:46housing. It was the most tone deaf response you could possibly imagine. I give both candidates
00:50terrible grades. Raman gets a failing grade and Bass, maybe a D minus. Really just terrible. And
00:55this debate really missed the presence of Spencer Pratt, who at least brought fresh ideas
00:59and new energy to the campaign. For the California Post, I'm Joel Pollack.
