Rep. Karen Bass and Rick Caruso both found themselves on the defensive Thursday evening as a quintet of moderators pressed them on an array of pain points during an hourlong live debate
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KNX News digital managing editor Seth Lemon asked Bass whether she regretted accepting a $95,000 scholarship to get a master’s degree in social work from Marilyn Flynn, the dean of the school, who last monthThe congresswoman said she didn’t regret it and reiterated points she has made before about how the social work degree helped her “protect the nation’s most vulnerable children.”
Spectrum News anchor Giselle Fernandez pushed Caruso on his previous position on abortion rights, citingthat paraphrased his views on the subject to say he “opposes abortion in most cases but would support some stem cell research.” KNX anchor Charles Feldman brought up Bass’ 2010 speech praising Scientology — a clip of which Caruso has been running as a TV ad — and asked how she had been unaware of controversy about the church.“I certainly knew of some of Scientology’s abuses. I didn’t know the depth of them. I learned it later,” she said.
On homelessness, Bass said that the city has to “get people off the streets immediately” but warned that if the underlying roots of the problem aren’t addressed, people will slip back into homelessness. She also drew attention to Caruso’s plans to build 30,000 interim housing units, accusing him of wanting to “essentially round up people and warehouse them in shelters.”
“My opponent says he wants to hire 1,500 police officers when he knows that the [police] academy can’t even fill a class now,” she said.