LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell publicly rebuked Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nithya Raman after a campaign video showed his face crossed out with a large red X and branded him a “fascist liar.”
“I saw that, and I was disappointed that she would be associated with anything like that,” McDonnell told NBC Los Angeles.
The now-deleted video featured Raman, a city councilmember running on a socialist platform, alongside left-wing influencer Ed Choi. It opened with the two of them declaring, “Only you can stop fascist liars,” as images of Mayor Karen Bass appeared on screen. McDonnell’s face then appeared with the red X across it.
Choi told Raman in the video that Los Angeles had become “extremely fascist” because Bass appointed McDonnell as police chief, and asked her how she would change the city. Raman responded by accusing the LAPD of protecting ICE agents instead of residents and pledged to replace McDonnell if elected mayor.
McDonnell used his response to defend his department’s handling of the violent immigration protests that swept Los Angeles in June 2025, rejecting Raman’s claim that officers protected federal immigration agents at the expense of protesters.
“We had 52 officers injured during that period of time. The assaults on officers were like I’ve never seen before, with commercial-grade fireworks being shot directly at them,” McDonnell said.
He said officers suffered hearing damage and concussions during the unrest, and described attacks involving Molotov cocktails, all-terrain vehicles driven at officers, and cars set on fire in front of them.
“The officers were amazingly disciplined for what they were facing,” McDonnell said.
One LAPD member told the New York Post that placing a red X over the chief’s face effectively made him a target, calling the video “extremely dangerous.”
Raman’s campaign pushed back on the characterization, telling the Post that the “fascist liars” line referred to ICE and the Trump administration, not to McDonnell, Bass, or LAPD officers.
“The video was then edited by the creator to put Mayor Bass on screen during that moment, but Nithya never used that phrase to describe Mayor Bass, Chief McDonnell or LAPD officers,” the campaign said.
The exchange marks an escalation in the Los Angeles mayoral race, with the city’s top police official now directly accusing a leading candidate’s campaign of endangering him on camera.
