Biden Calls for LA City Councilors to Resign Over Audio Leak
Distressed Patriotic Flag Unisex T-Shirt - Celebrate Comfort and Country $11.29 USD Get it here>>
President Joe Biden joined a group of officials calling for three Los Angeles City Councilors who took part in a racially charged conversation to resign, according to the White House press secretary Oct. 11.
“I spoke to him about it yesterday [Oct. 10],” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a White House briefing. “The president is glad to see one of the participants in that conversation has resigned, but they all should. He believes that they all should resign.
“The language that was used and tolerated during that conversation was unacceptable,” she said. “It was appalling. They should all step down.”
After a torrent of criticisms from politicians and community groups, Nury Martinez resigned as the council’s president on Oct. 10 after audio recordings of her “racist” conversation last year with three other local officials—Councilmen Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera—were leaked over the weekend.
A wave of officials and political candidates condemned the remarks and called for all the involved officials to resign from their posts.
Hallie Balch, regional director of communications for the Republican National Committee, issued a statement criticizing the comments made during the taped conversation.
Balch criticized Martinez for issuing “a classically lukewarm apology that we have come to expect from Democrats who get caught,” and de León and Cedillo for failing to stop Martinez “from making her vile comments,” while they “chimed in with their own jokes and commentary.”
Though Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera has since resigned, none of the three councilors involved in the conversation have stepped down as of the afternoon of Oct. 11. Earlier in the day, Martinez announced she is taking a “leave of absence” from the council.
“This has been one of the most difficult times of my life and I recognize this is entirely of my own making,” Martinez said in a statement. “At this moment, I need to take a leave of absence and take some time to have an honest and heartfelt conversation with my family, my constituents, and community leaders. I am so sorry to the residents of Council District 6, my colleagues, and the city of Los Angeles.”
On Oct. 10, a group of elected officials including Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Assembly members Isaac Bryan and Tina McKinnor also held a news conference calling on the three councilors to immediately resign their council seats.
(R) Rick Caruso in Los Angeles on Aug. 12, 2019. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Caruso)
LA Mayoral candidates Rick Caruso and Rep. Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) both called for the trio to resign.
“I do believe that in their hearts they are better people than the vile comments we heard on that tape,” Caruso said in a statement. “But they also know they are role models and they have let our city down. Being a leader means taking full responsibility for your actions. In this important moment for our city, anything short of resignation completely fails that test.”
Bass said the city “must move in a new direction, and that is not possible unless the four individuals caught on that tape resign from their offices immediately.”
Councilors Mike Bonin, Curren Price, Nithya Raman, and Heather Hutt also called on the trio to resign, as did Mayor Eric Garcetti, City Attorney Mike Feuer, Controller Ron Galperin, Rep. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), local Reps. Tony Cárdenas, Adam Schiff, and Ted Lieu, and an array of community and political organizations, including the Los Angeles County Democratic Party and county Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Hilda Solis. Councilman Paul Koretz called on Martinez to resign.
Gov. Gavin Newsom condemned the remarks without calling for resignation.
In the recorded conversation—which originally appeared on Reddit before being removed Oct. 9—Martinez made disparaging comments aimed at Bonin’s 2-year-old black adopted son and at other ethnic groups while the group discussed the politically sensitive process of redrawing council district boundaries.
The Epoch Times obtained and reviewed a copy of the recording, but it was unclear who taped the conversation and released it. The meeting reportedly occurred at a Federation of Labor office, and the federation is investigating the source of what it said to be the “illegal recording.”
City News Service contributed to this report.
Follow
