ABC anchor Martha Raddatz had two chances to do her job last weekend during the network’s flagship Sunday program This Week. In the course of interviewing Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D), Raddatz asked many questions about the morality of deportations, immigrant labor, and the "fear" allegedly sweeping Southern California. But somehow, Raddatz managed to almost completely sidestep the most glaring fact on the ground: the Trump administration’s border policy was working.
She didn’t say a word about that success until the quiet comfort of the ABC News Live stream on Saturday, but that fact never made it to This Week.
On This Week, Raddatz grilled Bass, asking, “So they should not be deported?” and then pressing further: “A million undocumented?” Bass, who appeared more like an activist than a mayor, waved off the numbers and said, “Well, let me just tell you, what we need is comprehensive immigration reform.”
That’s political code for ‘do nothing now and blame the other guy later.’
But when asked point-blank by Raddatz if she could think of anything that the Trump administration had done well at the border, Bass didn’t blink: “I don’t know. I don’t think so.” That was a curious moment, because Raddatz, a veteran journalist, should have known better.
Just minutes into her summary segment for ABC News Live, ABC’s 24/7 online streaming cousin with far fewer eyeballs, Raddatz admitted what she wouldn’t say during her main event broadcast. “Whatever they’re doing is certainly working at the border itself,” she said. “We were down on that border and it is dramatically, dramatically different than it was a year ago, Whit [Johnson].”
Dramatically different? That's not a casual aside on a forgotten livestream that should be the main point of your interview.
It’s not like Raddatz didn’t know how to highlight border chaos when it’s politically useful. Back in the Biden years, she often covered the southern border, always with a camera crew in tow, documenting “massive numbers” and quoting Border Patrol agents. She even brought up one of those past quotes during the This Week interview: “They’re cutting in line in front of those people who want to do it legally and the right way.”
But this time, now that the flow had slowed, and policies under a new administration appear to be actually having an effect, Raddatz gave the success a passing mention only on the B-team broadcast.
One can’t help but wonder: If ICE presence was “working” to deter illegal immigration, if the border was “dramatically different,” and if illegal crossings were down because of this administration’s deterrent strategy, why was ABC hiding that fact in the footnotes?
More importantly, why wasn’t Martha Raddatz challenging the mayor of America’s second-largest city on why she’s openly resisting those very policies that seem to be fixing the problem, especially when Mayor Bass was deflecting every single immigration question and flat out denying that the current administration has done anything to help the border crisis? So why did Raddatz not challenge Bass’s responses?
The mayor’s closing line on This Week was a melodramatic flourish: “I’m hoping this reign of terror ends.” It was a claim rooted in fiction, said only to fear-monger and sow distrust in the President and law enforcement.
But Raddatz let it go. No pushback. No context. No mention of the border's "dramatic" transformation until she was safely off the air and into the streaming abyss, where news segments go to be forgotten. The viewers of This Week were left with Bass’s soundbites and Raddatz’s silence.
[H/T Caleb Howe, Mediaite]
The entire transcript is below. Click "expand" to read.
ABC’s This Week
July 20, 2025
11:36:52 AM ET(…)
MARTHA RADDATZ: When you look at the raids and the deportations, just tell me who you think should be deported. Is it just people who have been convicted of crimes? You have, what? Almost a million undocumented workers in Los Angeles. What should happen to those people?
KAREN BASS: So let me just say that because we are a city of immigrants, we have entire sectors of our economy that are dependent on immigrant labor. We have to get the fire areas rebuilt. We're not going to get our city rebuilt without immigrant labor, and it's not just the deportation, it's the fear that sets in when raids occur, when people are snatched off the street. And I know you are aware that even people here legally, even people who are U.S. citizens, have been detained. Immigrants who have their papers and were showing up for their mo– annual immigration appointment were detained when they showed up doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing.
RADDATZ: So they should not be deported?
BASS: I don’t think so!
RADDATZ: They should stay?
BASS: Well, this is wh–
RADDATZ: A million undocumented?
BASS: Well let me just tell you, what we need is comprehensive immigration reform. I served in Congress for 12 years–
RADDATZ: And didn’t get it.
BASS: Well, I didn't get it, and why didn’t we get it? I mean, after I left, there was an immigration reform bill that had bipartisan support. This was during the campaign. The president decided he didn't want to have it happen because he didn't want immigration reform to happen where he didn't take credit for it.
RADDATZ: But back to that question of undocumented workers, I'm thinking back and a Border Patrol agent once said to me, as we saw migrants during a very bad time for so many migrants coming across when Joe Biden was President, and you know that, just massive numbers.
BASS: Yes, yes.
RADDATZ: And I said, do you feel bad for these people? And the Border agent said, you know what, I do, but I also know they're cutting in line in front of those people who want to do it legally and the right way.
BASS: Let me just tell you that the people that make that trek, many of whom walk from Central America and even South America up to our border, risk their lives. I don't believe that all of these people are sitting at home dreaming of coming to Los Angeles. They're coming here out of desperation.
RADDATZ: Look, go back to Joe Biden again, okay?
BASS: Okay. Look further than Joe Biden.
RADDATZ: There were hundreds of thousands of people crossing that border. When you look at that border today, is there anything good you think the administration has done in these six months at the border?
BASS: Well, I will heap praise on the administration for the first six months in Los Angeles with the fires. If you ask me, is there anything that they have done good in terms of immigration? I don't know. I don't think so. I think that the viewpoint has been punitive, has been let's make it as miserable as possible so that these people don't come.
RADDATZ: Are you having conversations with the Trump administration about this?
BASS: I have not recently. I have put in a request and I hope to. I will always be open to a conversation.
RADDATZ: So, even with the Guard here, they’ve had no conversations?
BASS: I want to work with the administration to solve this problem. We have the World Cup in 11 short months here. We have the Olympics and Paralympics coming in three short years. I know these games are very important to the President, and I look forward to working with him. And we have an extreme difference on this issue, but there are many issues to work on and I will continue trying to outreach to the administration and hope that at some point they'll be responsive.
RADDATZ: How does this end? How do you see the next six months, the next two years for immigrants in your city?
BASS: Well, I am just hoping this reign of terror ends. I'm hoping the military leaves because they were never needed here to begin with. I'm hoping that we can get back to normal. I'm hoping that the next time I come to this restaurant that it will be filled, because people won't be afraid to come here.
(...)
ABC News Live
7/20/2025
10:08:06 AM ETJOHNSON: The immigration crackdown. You traveled to California and spoke with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. What is she saying about how this is impacting the nation’s second biggest city?
RADDATZ: Karen Bass said, basically, it is completely outrageous what is happening. I asked her about the million immigrants who are not documented, who live in her city, and she seemed to think they are all working and they should stay. But we asked her specifically about how this policy is impacting her city.
BASS: Los Angeles is a city of immigrants, 3.8 million people and about 50 percent of our population is Latino and so when the raids started fear spread, fear spread like a virus around the entire county.
RADDATZ: Is there anything good you think the administration has done in these six months at the border?
BASS: Well, I will keep praise on the administration for the first six months in Los Angeles with the fires. If you ask me, is there anything that they have done good in terms of immigration, I don’t know. I don’t think so. I think that the viewpoint has been punitive, has been let’s make it as miserable as possible so that these people don’t come.
RADDATZ: And whatever they’re doing is certainly working at the border itself, Whit. We were down on that border and it is dramatically, dramatically different than it was a year ago, Whit.
(ABC News Live transcript credit: Caleb Howe, Mediaite)