Karen Bass can’t fire Casey Wasserman as the head of Los Angeles’ 2028 Olympic Games, but she wants the soon-to-be former agency boss out ASAP.
“My opinion is, is that he should step down,” LA Mayor Bass said this Presidents’ Day on CNN. “That’s not the opinion of the board,” the reelection seeking incumbent added of the unanimous backing that Wasserman recieved from his handpicked LA Olympics board on February 11.
“The committee that is involved with the Olympics has the discretion, the board made a decision,” Mayor Bass said Monday in a big break from her previous much more circumspect statements about Wasserman as more of his relationships with now dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his currently imprisoned chief procurer Ghislaine Maxwell came to light. “I think that decision was unfortunate.”
“I don’t support the decision. I do think that we need to look at the leadership”
At that emergency LA28 board meeting last week, the most vocal advocat for keeping the increasingly besieged Wasserman in his role was Jeffrey Katzenberg, sources close to events said at the time. The Katzenberg connection between Bass and the Eric Garcetti-appointed Wasserman has long been seen as fundamental to their relationship preparing the city for the 2028 Summer Games. With an emphasis on solutions for LA’s homelessness blight, Katzenberg was a major cheerleader and donor for the longtime Congresswoman getting LA’s top job in 2022.
Today, Bass put the realpolitik of Wasserman’s fate on the table. Her remarks on cable TV come as more and more LA politicians, including one who wants Bass’ job, are calling for the LA28 Chair to resign. Time and time gain, the call is for Wasserman not be a “distraction” to theCity of Angels’ latest turn in the spotlight in two years.
“My job as mayor of Los Angeles is to make sure that our city is completely prepared to have the best Olympics that has ever happened in Olympic history,” Bass told CNN’s Dana Bash with some virtue and vice signaling to the board, the IOC and Wasserman buddy Donald Trump. “So my focus is a little different, but the behavior of Maxwell, what they were involved in is abhorrent,” she stated.
“Bass is a smart operator,” a well-positioned individual with strong links to City Hall and Hollywood told Deadline tonight. “She knows Wasserman is going to be a problem for her reelection, a problem for the Olympics, so she made her move. It’s up to the board again next, but how can he go on now ?”
MORE
English (US) ·