Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt on his political inexperience: "I mean, look at Obama"

0:03 And welcome back to The Takeout.

0:04 Candidates for Los Angeles mayor had their first debate last night.

0:08 Progressive City Council member Nithya Raman

0:10 and Republican and former reality TV star Spencer Pratt are the two leading

0:15 candidates looking to unseat incumbent Karen Bass.

0:18 Some of the most contentious moments

0:20 in the debate came over LA's approach to homelessness.

0:23 Take a listen.

0:24 Homelessness was going up year after year and under my watch

0:28 it is the first time we've had a decrease in street homelessness.

0:32 The way you address homelessness,

0:35 the way you address people living on the street

0:36 is by bringing them off the streets and indoors.

0:40 Councilwoman Raman's plan for treatment first,

0:42 I will go below the Harbor Freeway tomorrow with her and we

0:45 can find some of these people she's going to offer treatment for.

0:48 She's going to get stabbed in the neck.

0:51 And CBS News correspondent Adam Yamaguchi joins us now.

0:55 Adam, great to see you.

0:56 So, you spoke to Spencer Pratt and I can tell you I'm dating myself,

1:00 but I watched every episode of The Hills when I was in high school.

1:03 I am just shocked to see this race develop into what it is.

1:07 Tell me a little bit about your conversation.

1:10 You talked about his experience or lack thereof running for office.

1:14 Yeah, that's right.

1:15 Good to join you.

1:16 Yeah, I think that you know,

1:17 your experience watching him on The Hills is is, you know,

1:21 what a lot of people sort of associate

1:23 with Spencer Pratt and that is coming into this race.

1:27 That only makes not only makes him an unlikely candidate,

1:30 but also even more unlikely as a person who could potentially you know,

1:35 mount a serious bid in this race against the incumbent mayor.

1:39 He knows that he is identified readily as you know,

1:44 little more than a reality star villain.

1:47 But he's actually taking his lack of experience

1:49 and he's making it an asset for himself.

1:52 Take a listen to what he said.

1:55 I mean, look at Obama.

1:56 He was a community organizer.

1:58 I've won two community advocate awards for my Nobody's thought

2:01 why can Obama become a senator and then the president.

2:04 He had no experience running the whole entire country,

2:06 which is way bigger than LA.

2:08 So, when people have passion and they care and they have

2:11 common sense and they have humility to know I don't know everything,

2:15 but what I do know is all these very smart,

2:17 successful people in Los Angeles want to get around me,

2:21 get behind me and make sure LA is the number one city in the world.

2:25 So, the team that I'll put around me,

2:26 my job as mayor is actually just to fight for the constituents,

2:31 to be in these communities, to be with the community leaders,

2:33 to be fighting their city council members to get what they want done.

2:38 And I think a lot of LA voters are surprised

2:40 to see that Pratt has made it to where he is.

2:43 You know, he's tapping into widespread

2:45 angst over homelessness, the cost of living,

2:47 crime and drug use and of course that wildfire response.

2:51 Uh the June primary is coming up less than three weeks away.

2:55 Uh the top two vote getters, if no one hits the 51% mark,

2:59 then goes on to the November election.

3:01 And Adam, it appears that you were talking to him in the trailer that he

3:04 says he and his family are living in after their house burned down in the fires.

3:09 Adam Yamaguchi, fascinating interview.

3:10 We'll stay tuned for more.

3:11 Thank you for being here.