Spencer Pratt Taunts Karen Bass As Election Results Trickle In
California’s election results are still coming in from the June 2 primary.
Making matters even more worrisome, Democratic leaders in the state claim it could take weeks to count all the ballots.
But in the Los Angeles mayoral contest, incumbent Democrat Karen Bass didn’t crack the 51% needed to win outright, setting up a runoff in November.
More importantly, there is a battle between Spencer Pratt, a former reality TV personality and Republican, and Nithya Raman, a City Council member and Democrat.
Pratt is projecting confidence that he will beat Raman to make the runoff against Bass — but he’s also confident Bass will be an easy opponent.
“Are you going to debate Karen Bass again?” a reporter asked Pratt. “And what do you want to tell her if she sees this?”
“You know, I loved debating her on NBC. I look forward to a couple more on NBC and Fox. We can do debates every Friday if she would like because this actually became my most favorite thing to do,” Pratt responded.
“I hope she’s ready, because I literally could not be more excited,” he added.
“It is usually a good thing for a politician, Dave, to debate the dumbest people around them. So I think Spencer Pratt is in a good position here,” Stu says.
“It has helped a lot of people in the past. So I think it’s a very good idea,” co-host Dave Landau agrees, though he adds, “unfortunately, in California, I’m not sure if it’s going to help.”
“Yeah, it’s still going to be tough in Los Angeles for Spencer Pratt to win because when you have a situation where it’s two Democrats and one Republican, their votes get kind of split up,” Stu says.
“When you go the opposite way, and you have one Republican versus one Democrat, it’s very difficult to win in a city like this, especially in an election time that’s probably going to be pretty difficult for Republicans generally,” he continues.
“Pratt though is looking at this positively, Dave. He’s trying to take a positive spin on what is to come here in the next few months,” he adds.
In an interview following the latest election results, Pratt exclaimed that “obviously God wanted five more months” of him “exposing all the failures of our mayor.”
“So it’s going to be a fun ride. I hope she’s ready,” he said, adding that he was “born for this.”
Pratt finished Election Night with 30.4 percent of the vote.
Pratt is well ahead of progressive City Councilwoman Nithya Raman, who trailed at 22.3 percent.
Yet despite an eight-point gap and hundreds of thousands of ballots already counted, officials and media outlets continue describing the race as too close to call.
As additional ballots have been processed, Pratt’s lead has narrowed somewhat, though he remains comfortably ahead.
The latest vote update shows Pratt at 29.4 percent compared to Raman’s 23.4 percent, leaving him with a six-point advantage.
Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass remains in first place with roughly 35 percent of the vote and is all but certain to advance to the November runoff.
The battle now centers on whether Raman can somehow erase Pratt’s substantial lead and capture the second runoff spot.
Election officials say hundreds of thousands of ballots may still remain uncounted. Based on historical voting patterns, many analysts expect those ballots to lean more Democratic than the votes counted thus far.
That possibility has fueled speculation that Raman could eventually catch Pratt.
But even supporters of that theory acknowledge there is no guarantee current trends will continue.
What is clear is that vote counting is expected to continue for days.
Additional ballot reports are scheduled daily through at least June 12, while ballots postmarked by Election Day can still be accepted if they arrive by June 9.
A powerful district attorney came to my house before dawn with a baseball bat and a sheriff carrying a fake warrant.
Daniel Brooks stepped through my broken doorway like a man who believed the law belonged to him.
Rain dripped from his suit.
A baseball bat hung from his right hand.
Behind him stood Sheriff Walker, broad shoulders filling the doorway, one palm resting near his belt as if intimidation were part of his uniform.
“Give me my son,” Daniel said.
Ethan shook so hard in my arms the blanket slipped from one shoulder.
I pulled it back around him and held him tighter against my cardigan.
His face was bruised.
One eye swollen.
Mud dried along his jaw where he had fallen running through the woods behind my house.
When Daniel’s voice hit the room, Ethan buried his face against me.
“Grandma,” he whispered. “Don’t let him take me.”
I felt the old part of myself wake fully.
Not the grandmother.
Not the widow.
The colonel.
The woman who had once sat in windowless rooms listening to men lie while entire operations depended on noticing which finger twitched first.
Daniel raised the bat slightly.
Sheriff Walker glanced at Ethan’s face.
For the first time, his confidence flickered.
Good.
He had not expected the boy to look that damaged under lamplight.
I kept my voice quiet.
“A warrant at three-thirty in the morning. You boys got sloppy.”
Daniel froze mid-step.
Sheriff Walker’s eyes moved to my covered hand beneath the knitting blanket.
A faint metallic click cut through the rain and police lights.
Daniel heard it.
His rage drained by a fraction.
“Evelyn,” he said, forcing calm. “You’re confused. Ethan ran away. I’m here to bring him home.”
Ethan made a small broken sound.
I looked at Daniel.
“No. You’re here because he saw the rug.”
Daniel’s mouth tightened.
Sheriff Walker stopped breathing for half a second.
That was enough.
I rose halfway from my chair with Ethan still tucked against one side of me.
My hidden hand stayed beneath the blanket.
“Come closer, Daniel.”
He did not.
For the first time since entering my house, the district attorney understood he was not standing in front of an old woman.
He was standing inside a trap he had helped build with his own arrogance.
