Before becoming Madam Mayor, Bass served six terms as a Democrat in Congress and was a potential running mate in Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign for president. She entered Congress in 2010 and was chair of Congressional Black Caucus.
Meanwhile, the current wildfire disaster is only the latest controversy to damage Bass.
She praised Fidel Castro and had close associations with Cuba in her youth, traveling to the country in 1973 with an organization called the Venceremos Brigade and seeing the communist leader speak.
In 2016, when Castro died, she referred to him as 'commandante en jefe' (commander-in-chief) saying his passing was a 'great loss to the people of Cuba.' She also reportedly gave a eulogy for a senior member of the Communist Party USA.