On his podcast Monday, Bill Maher warned Spencer Pratt that his attacks on mayoral candidate Karen Bass over the 2025 Los Angeles fires were starting to get “a little too personal,” after Pratt said Bass burned his home and pushed him to run for office.
Bill Maher didn’t come on his podcast Monday to fight a political war with Spencer Pratt—he came with a single, pointed warning.
Maher told Pratt that he’s “a highly requested guest among” listeners. both online and in-person. and said that if nothing else had happened. Pratt’s presence itself had made an impact. “You are on people’s minds. Nobody can take that away from you,” Maher said. “If nothing else happened, you did that.”.
Then Pratt tried to set the terms of his campaign. “I never planned to be the mayor of L.A.,” he told Maher. “I only ran to have a bigger platform to expose all the negligence … because this person [Mayor Karen Bass] in charge burned my house down, my mom’s house, my neighbors.”
Maher cut in before Pratt could fully settle into campaign rhetoric. “I keep hearing you say this. You’re making it a little too personal,” Maher replied. “She is not a great mayor. That is a very common view … She f–ked up some things. A lot of people f–ked up some things. One person didn’t burn your house down.”.
Pratt pushed back, saying the role Bass held requires accountability. “She was in Ghana, so she obviously didn’t light the fire,” Pratt replied. “You have to hold somebody responsible who’s in charge.”
The conversation also landed on the personal toll Pratt said the fires have continued to take. Pratt described the grief as daily and ongoing. “It is personal because I have to hear my crying mom every day. Then the lady across the street burned alive. Then that lady with the parrots,” he said. Maher responded with a joke: “Well don’t drag the parrots into it.”.
Pratt’s campaign has centered on berating his incumbent opponent, Mayor Karen Bass, for what he frames as mishandling of the Los Angeles fires in 2025. He said he lost his home and decided to run in part to expose failures he believes the city didn’t address while the flames were spreading.
Maher, for his part, said Pratt’s message has resonated with people so broadly that he’s been asked to have him on the show “everywhere.”
Polls will close in the primary election for L.A. mayor Tuesday at 8 p.m. PT. The leading mayoral candidates are Bass, Pratt and Councilmember Nithya Raman. Raman and Pratt have been battling for the second spot in the runoff against the incumbent. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote. the top two will move forward to a runoff election in November.
Pratt’s interview with Maher is available to watch in full via the recording embedded below.
Bill Maher Spencer Pratt Karen Bass L.A. mayoral primary Los Angeles fires 2025 Nithya Raman Club Random podcast